hello, 2012

Sorry for the long absence. The day after my last post, I came down with a bad cold which progressed into bronchitis and now, over 6 weeks later, I am still coughing. According to the doctor, a cough can linger for a long time so it's not that unusual. It's unusual for ME, though, and it's caused me to completely retreat into a little cocoon and not do much of anything. It's no fun feeling crappy.

Despite the never-ending cough, I am very excited for this year. I feel really inspired on so many levels and so many exciting things are in the works.

I just spent 2 weeks with my family in Florida and had such an amazing, relaxing, and healing time with them. Having a mother who teaches meditation and an acupuncturist brother who teaches Qi Gong, I came back to Seattle with a renewed commitment to clear out a lot of the internal noise and external clutter and spend more time being quiet.

I didn't take many photos in Florida, but thought I'd share a few of the ones I did. Nothing too exciting here, but they are meaningful to me, just the same.

Happy New Year, everyone.

NOTE: I keep getting comments about the painting featured below. Joe was hired to paint a backdrop for a middle school play, and he took the canvas to Florida to work on during our trip. The photo below is the finished product, (it's supposed to be the view from a window at a ski lodge.)

My awesome 7-year old niece, Thea, was very excited to be able to help paint the snow.