“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives”. – Henry David Thoreau

As 2016 draws to a close, it is time to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’ve yet to go. It always comes as a surprise that the year has moved along so quickly. Time seems to flow faster and faster each and every year. It astounds me.

As my children grow older I realize that the years they have left at home are less than those difficult exhausting years behind us when each day felt like an eternity. Now when I look back with nostalgic eyes, I wonder where the days of diapers, meltdowns and sweet moments of kisses and cuddles all went. I miss those days yet I didn’t have a lot of time for myself.

Now it is time to plan for the path ahead. The words of poet Mary Oliver sing inside my head, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Those words both inspire and haunt me as I find myself at a crossroads a bit unsure of which direction I want to take. Will it come to me before it is too late? Before I settle in to the comforts of life? Let’s hope so. I don’t ever want to look back with regrets of the path not taken.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley”.-  Theodore Roethke

Happy New Year!