GIVING THE OLD YEAR AS A GIFT TO THE NEW YEAR

We have just returned from our cabin in the Trinity Alps where we had a quiet New Year's with no TV or computer, a wonderful brunch with old friends the next day, and I was thinking on the way home....what would I choose to wrap up from 2009 as a gift for 2010. So, at a risk of waxing nostalgaic, here are some things I would put in a little box. When I open the box this years they will be memories that will scoot me forward into the direction I want to go this year.
On a David Lettermen note we will start with....
10-Getting ready to teach under a visiting professorship at Hollins University. Going through the last 10 years of writing and illustrating to decide what to teach. It was a walk down memory lane.
9- Babysitting for my grandson once a week and having him tell me each time he wants to paint with Grandma.
8-6 weeks of teaching at Hollins and meeting part of the next wave of writers's for children, and having my youngest daughter live with me for 6 weeks.
7- My first art show at Stephans Fine Arts in Anchorage. It is one of the galleries I dreamed of being in "someday" when we lived in the bush in Alaska.
6- Finishing the next two manuscripts, which have been buried for four years.
5- Listening to my grandson tell his first story last month and then say "teasing Grandma" .
4- Joining the Sebastopol Gallery, and learning the ying and yang of the fine art world.
3-Learning how a business works, how to work a gallery, how to be a merchant selling other people's work as well as my own.
2-Going to a retreat at Asilomar, where writers went to work, but ended up talking about what was really important in their lives and what we have to offer.
1-This is selfish, but a few days ago I received a gift....a book of Inuit Women Artists, art I have studied and admired for years. I am not there yet, but it is where I want to go.

And there should be a no-brainer part of this...meeting new people who have similar views on the world, children who are all doing well, and pursuing their own dreams while forming families and careers, a husband of 40 years who supports my work, while becoming a master meat maker...coppa, pastrami, sausage, salamentes, etc.,. I think these may be the things we take for granted...so they can be the wrapping paper for the last ten gifts that will move me forward into 2010.

I visited with two writing friends today, and will meet with many more next week.and know I should put their support in the gift box as well. So if you have a chance, check out the work of Marsha Diane Arnold, Milly Lee, Stacey Schuett, David Schwartz, Marilyn Sachs, Matt Gollub, Susan Meyers, Lisa Schulman, Julie Downing, Ashely Wolff, and others.

A late Happy New Year to you all, and I would love to hear what is wrapped in the gift box for 2010.