My Year 2012

To be honest with you all, it seems like a lifetime ago that I wrote my last end of the year post. Last year, I was coming off a tremendous high, fresh from all the super exciting things that had happened in 2011 (hello college graduation, my wedding, a honeymoon to Italy...) I was a little sad to see 2011 go last year. You can check out that post here. But this year is very different. You see, although I tried to hide it here on the blog, this past year was actually one of the hardest of my life. Lots of transitions and life changes with feelings of despair and depression for a good part of the year stemming from a frustrating health condition that tore me to pieces. I hope to share more about that soon.

In the meantime, this post is about the good things that happened to me this year. We can't have a bad year without any good things, right? And of course, I had my share of moments of happiness throughout the year. Unfortunately, I have very few pictures documenting those moments. For the most part, the only time I used my camera was for food pictures for the blog.

 From strawberry picking in misty fields to wild blueberry picking on our long and beautiful first year anniversary hike....

...to raspberry and blackberry picking in a field all to ourselves in the early fall coolness. We certainly had our fair share of gorgeous berries.

From a beyond inspirational cooking class with Sarah B. in Manhattan ...

 ...to teaching my own cooking class with my dear friend, I gained a new sense of purpose.

From a day-long excursion through the New York Botanical Gardens...

 ...to the many more moments that are in my memory that took my breath away and made me grateful, despite the deep pain I felt throughout the year.

I'm starting 2013 with an open heart. It can only go up from here. It's going to be another year full of tremendous and exciting changes...changes that will land me in the Pacific Northwest in just 10 short days. I'm looking forward to living again after this past year. I'm looking forward to finding a new, confident part of myself. I'm looking forward to discovering a whole new part of my country, one that is well beyond my comfort zone of my beautiful state of New York. And this year, I'm going to be better with photographing it all. Here's to an incredible new year. One that's full of abundant health, gratitude, and happiness for all.

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