Photo:  TLCLark, 12/31/2018

In the weekly photo challenge Nancy Merril Photography asked “What will the new year hold for each of us?”  The challenge is to “SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF SOMETHING NEW.”

Last week as Dad showed me the storage space below their new house – more crawl space than basement in terms of height, more basement than crawl space in terms of being water proof – I caught sight of a box of crayons.  They’d been spilled across the lid of plastic tote box and onto the floor.  The crayons were new.  But I didn’t have a camera and I wasn’t going down there a second time just to take a picture.

My next thought for the challenge was a new box of colored pencils.  All lined up in a rainbow array, every tip precisely sharpened.  The colored pencils I had with me were definitely well used, some just a stub of their former selves.  I had new box at home but hadn’t wanted to spoil those perfectly pointed ends!

New colored pencils.  Photo:  TlClark, 12/31/2018

As we drove (and drove and drove) the last few days from Montana, across a corner of Wyoming, through South Dakota, and into Iowa on our way home, I had plenty of time to think about “something new.”  I kept returning to the idea of a blank page.

Blank Page.  Photo: TLClark, 12/31/2018

What will we write or draw or scribble or paint or create in this new year?  What relationships will we renew or strengthen?  What opportunities will we embrace?  What books will we read?  What will push us to think new thoughts or look at the world in a new way?

Photo:  TLClark, 12/31/2018

May you treasure the best of the old and embrace the opportunity of the new each and every day, regardless of the year!