What Have You Accomplished This Year?

December makes me feel like I haven't done enough each year. I keep an extra close eye on my calendar because the days seem to be scattering faster and faster as the month rolls along. As I lose my December,  I start looking ahead to January, making plans and goals for the upcoming year: "In January I will...I'd better start doing..."

I find that the things I've actually done this year, those well earned and wonderful things that move us forward in life, that are the foundation we are building our next years on get diminished into things that simply were. I don't honor them like I should: my goals and projects kept me company throughout the last year and helped propel me forward into where I am now, ready to take on a new set of goals.

I don't feel like I've done a lot but the reality is different when I calculate it. We moved across the country again. I re-settled into a new home. I made friends here and re-joined an old circle of friends I had dearly missed. I finished up a school year in one of the most difficult classrooms of my career. I took the horse I rode in Colorado from a walk to a trot to a canter, and took thousands of beautiful photographs of my life. I had a birthday, had an anniversary, went to Canada twice, and started work on a large project as well as lining up some traveling for 2015. I don't think I figured much out this year - this was a year of questions, not answers - but I do know that I got somewhere. My heart is at peace.

So, what have you accomplished this year?  That's my question to you as we walk forward into the next year together. I beg you to honor and not diminish the things that you have done this year as the foundation for all that you hope for and plan for next year. Let me know what you are proud of. Flip through your blog archives, journal entries, or sketchbooks and remember the things you've forgotten you've done.

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Yes, I broke my rule of not portraying Detroit as a ruined city but when you find yourself here with a bunch of friends you just have to seize the photo opportunity. Sorry, Detroit. 

Hat: Carhartt

Shirt: From a clothes swap with friends

Pants: Madewell

Shoes: j. crew