This is my last post of 2023 and I’m ending the year with a celebration!

“Autumn is the season to find contentment at home by paying attention to what we already have.”

—unknown

Earlier this week I sat in my studio with a steaming mug of Dragonwell tea and watched my garden through my new sliding doors.

I stand at the window and look out at my garden. Birds come and go from the feeder.

“In the pocket of her jacket, Aunt Edna found a small sable brush, and throughout dinner she repeatedly dipped it in her water glass and drew…. upon her absorbent napkin.”

I vividly remember the first time I tied my shoe.

Last week I asked you to share your intentions for the rest of 2022 and to choose a word to guide you through the holiday season.

I sat in the dining room with my coffee, cereal and journal.

“I’m crabby. Crabby. Crabby. Crabby,” I wrote.

“Thanksgiving is not just a day, it’s a lifestyle.”

In Wisconsin by the time November rolls around, we’ve usually had our first frost. Sometimes we’ve already had our first snow, too.

It’s hard to believe this is the last week of my month of gratitude. August has flown by.

I think back to childhood Augusts with school looming and days of freedom dwindling. Back-to-school was both exciting and welcome but also tinged with sadness for the ending of summer.

Noticing beauty needn’t be limited to seeing it. Last week we focused on COLOR, something we experience with our eyesight, but this week I want you to awaken your other senses.

Did you end up writing a Gratitude List after my post last week?

Are you ready for today’s prompt to help open your eyes to the beauties and joys of summer*?

This week I want you to focus on COLOR.

Summer is speeding past and before it’s gone I want to make sure I savor all the things I love about it.

To remind me to slow down and savor the days, I’m devoting the month of August to gratitude and joy.

Bright sunshine and warm breezes. Clear blue skies and crisp snow. Cold, dark, wet days. This month I’ve tried to be present for it all.

November has been a gift. A strange month, but a gift, too.

This year I’ve gone to more vet appointments than I can count. I guess I could count them, flip back through calendar pages and tally up appointments for tests and surgery and treatments and more tests.

The other day my cousin Sarah* shared a post on Instagram which was a part of a longer piece she shared on her blog. In it she wrote “stepping out of the box I decided I was going to do something to treat me.” Although her words were about the importance of doing something for yourself, what kept running through my head was idea of stepping out of the box.

I talk about JOY a lot. The word is up there in my logo. It write about JOY in my blog posts. I describe my paintings with the word and when you sign up for my newsletter I send you a set of Joy Lists as a thank you. On top of that, I call my newsletter a JOYLetter.

Back in January I opened an invitation to the 5th Handmade Joy Exchange. I hosted the first one in 2012 and three more after that. Each one was such fun. It was great to get to know some new people, to facilitate new friendships and to help spread joy around the world.

Reviewing a whole year is a hard thing. Once you sit down to do it you realize how slippery a year can be. How difficult to contain with words or even photos.