On the 3rd Day of the New Year

Brrr! Winter has landed, or rather sweeping in with wind. Roaring fire in the fireplace, and when I stepped outside for wood this morning, I heard the wintery sound of a hoot owl.

Since this is only the 3rd day of the year, my word for the year–Hope– is fresh in my mind. Very often I forget these good intentions over night, but this time I have not. This is fortunate, because when the boatload of regrets from failures of last year tried to hang on me, the word hope popped into my mind. It came...