Before tomorrow we must reflect on yesterday. If we don’t remember our mistakes we cannot learn from them, if we don’t remember our growth we cannot continue, if we don’t remember our smiles we cannot be grateful. Let us be in the moment, recognize it for what it is and make the choice of how we will recall this day.

2015 was filled with travel

Sitting in the back of my parent’s station wagon driving to Ocean City, MD I’d stare out the window at the houses passing by wondering who lived there, imagining the clever conversations they must be having, the interesting food they must be eating and the great belly laughs that filled their sunshine filled homes. I was ten years old and I romanticized what existed in these houses, believing the lives they led were filled with TV moments. I’m not ten years old anymore but the romantic in me is still thriving. Now my lens has shifted from the houses on Route 50 to the rest of the world. Whether driving through the charming town of Valladolid or walking the tourist filled Avenue des Champs-Elysees I am equally enamored with the history and the landmarks as I am with the daily routine of those that live there. (Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2015, posted August 15, 2015)

“Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
– Psalms 37:4

The greatest gift a friend can give you is a friend. Your trusted and loved friend has done all the leg work; she has confirmed her humor is sarcastic, sassy, self-deprecating with a pinch of bawdiness, has the right balance of book smarts and street smarts, is earnest and gracious, enjoys a good Pinot Noir and a Hendricks and tonic, preferably at the same time, and gives good hugs.

Ellen, whom I have known since we sang religious nursery rhymes together, bestowed upon me Lisa. Lisa, an accomplished, silly, intelligent woman knows no boundaries nor lets fear anchor her. Lisa, who has inspired me since the moment I met her, is pregnant through assisted reproductive technology. Lisa is a woman who knows herself, who uses her mind to follow her heart.

On March 5, 2015 my baby turned 8. He received the best birthday gift, six inches of snow and no school!

Birthdays are special, stressful, extraordinary, dull, celebratory, dreaded and chock full of expectation. I expect friends and family to call, text, email, and post on Facebook their most heartfelt birthday wish, I expect everyone in the service industry to comp me something in recognition of this special day, I expect homemade gifts from my children, and I expect my spouse to lead and facilitate and ultimately carry the burden of making this day as special as possible.

Expectation is a real bitch, impossible to please.

Expectation tells me to have that second glass of champagne, that I deserve a Chanel bag, gives me a dozen balloons only to float away with them.

So for today, January 29, 2015, carpe diem.

Happy birthday to Anthony, a friend, extremely loyal to the few that truly count. Happy birthday to Anthony, a son and brother who loves his family fiercely, who thinks of what he wants to tell his Dad the next time they talk, silently reminds himself daily to call his Mom and has hour-long conversations with his sister.

New Years day is one of the most significant traditional Korean holidays. Families gather and eat soup with sliced rice cakes. After you eat the soup you are considered a year older. Children bow to their elders to pay their respects and are rewarded with words of wisdom and money. This is the one holiday my Mom continues to host, carrying on the tradition for the next generation.

Where does it go? The years. The minutes, I know exactly where they go. They are spent washing hands and brushing teeth, zipping coats and tying shoelaces, setting the table and cleaning the table, giving kisses and getting hugs. But the year, in an instant it is gone and as easily as you recall laying in the hospital bed staring into the eyes of your newborn you are now watching him blow out a candle that says 4.