2011

I've always heard that years seem to pass more quickly with age. Sometimes I think that must be true, as this last one seemed only a few blinks long...at least in physical matters and locality. Time flew. But in heart, soul and mind its been nearly an eternity.
My New Years Eve 2010 was spent with friends and acquaintances. It was spent with realization and revelation. 2011 was welcomed with promise. It would be a year of motion and growth and renewal. I knew it, I could feel it coming. 
I knew it would be uncomfortable at times, and it definitely was for a while. The first few months were a constant cycle of battling with myself. The person I was wasn't in step with the person I felt like I was, and definitely not the person I wanted to be. We were three separate entities fighting for my life to live. My heart sat beneath my stomach for some months, before climbing back to its rightful place. But even then it remained untouchable for a time. I learned, I listened. I gave in to temptation a few times and immediately regretted it. I lost and gained and lost again. I reached the closest I have ever been to the bottom of myself. By this time I had moved "home" to my grandparents house and began to re-root myself in the safest place I knew. Inside that wooden frame with my grandparents' souls, with the old creaks and moans, I strengthened.
I began meeting that person I wanted to become. I found her in those peach colored walls, where she sat calm and wise, watching over my sleep. In my garden's tending, beneath the earth where my carrots formed and grew. I found her in my flowerbed flourishing with the petunias. With the setting of every evenings sun I became more of her.
So everything that followed was air from this runway. Leaving the bank, deciding on cosmetology school, meeting my person, making my own niche (thus far) with hair...on and on. This year has been my best. My favorite, I should say, as I haven't always been at my best. I've been my worst, and my best as well. I exited this year full and thankful. {Full and thankful enough that even working through the midnight cheers while my love slept didn't bother me much.}  :)

and now for my visual rep of these last 12 months for you visual folks (myself included)...

january

{solitude, leaving}

february

{the move, more solitude and self pity}

march

{morning toast and tea, with a side of silence}

april

{garden time, growth, from the ground up}

may

{garden, rae, school, etc etc ETC! wow, this month was SO full, but the carrot covers it all}

june

{school!}

july

{rae comes home from Africa - safely- }

august

{carrot, reflection}

setpember

{blonde - that was a big deal for this brunette}

october

{Taos & Santa Fe, enough said}

november

{gardening @ Common Wealth, giving ourselves}

december

{this deserves two photos: a new baby, my first nephew!}

{and home, happily at home}

Happy New Year, everyone!