It seems like it was just January 2015 and here we are in another new year.  So many reasons to be grateful– my health seems better and am feeling full of ideas and creativity.  But its an election year and the media and terrorists seem to be running amok.   The World is so full of anger and brutality and just plain meanness that it hangs heavy on the soul.  I worry so about the children and the children to come and wonder what there is for them in the future.  And so much concern on my part as an environmentalist and “green” person about our lack of care for the World and its resources.  I actually heard a Republican candidate say last night that we need to increase our oil “fracking.”  Anyone who has studied the environment knows how horrible that is for the environment- for the future of the Earth.  All of these problems are downright depressing.

It would be wonderful if all was well with the World, that jihadist terrorism did not exist and terrorists were not trying to recruit new members from the our country’s youth.  I wish there were not mass shootings and children dying and starving in our World.  Sometimes for only short periods of time I try to block out the ugliness and then become ashamed of myself that I am not willing to face what’s going on in the World today.

I struggle to rationale the problems with the cyclical nature of war and peace in the World and usually can rationalize and remember that we maintain an even balance of historical past atrocities with periods of love and peace.  I pray a lot.  I listen and re-listen to my church’s (Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove, Minnesota) sermons posted on YouTube.  I read the Bible.  I try to be kind and good and do good as often as possible.  Kindness is so important.  I strive to be kind to everyone. To always smile at every single child I see or meet so that they will always know there is goodness and friendly faces in the World.

2015 was a year… of what … of good and bad and sorrow and happiness and kind people and horribly mean and petty people and I suspect this year will be the same.  I want to concentrate this year on trying to be the very best that I am capable of being– the best parent, the best wife, the best sister, the best artist, the best community supporter… simply the best at everything I set my mind on being the best!

Welcome to 2016 … the best is yet to come.  Remember, you only live once and if you work it right- that’s enough.  Let’s all be the best in 2016.