Happy New Year! David and I drove to North Dakota on Dec. 26 to visit friends in Minot and Bismarck. We planned to return on the 30th, but hearing about a blizzard in southern Saskatchewan convinced us to stay for an extra day. We got home at about 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 31, got to a potluck meal with friends at about 7:45 p.m. and then a New Year's Eve party at a bar/club with these friends at about 10:30 p.m. We left the party a little after 1:00 a.m. On January 1, we were out of Saskatoon by 11:00 a.m. to go to my family's New Year's Day gathering on a farm (where my sister Louise and her husband Larry live) near Raymore. As soon as we got back into S'toon at about 8:30 p.m. , we went to see our friend Judy (and our favourite dog, Henry). It's been a busy holiday!

Here's some Buddhist wisdom for the new year:

"If you’d mold yourself the way you teach others, then, well-trained , go ahead & tame--for, as they say, what’s hard to tame is you yourself."

-Dhammapada, 9
translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu