Reframe
zooming in, zooming out, and moving forward
Zooming In
This NYE was one for the books. Not for reasons that most might consider remarkable but simply because it was one of the dearest moments of the 2025 holiday season. I’m not a holiday person, so perhaps the bar is low in that regard. Still, I loved this New Year’s Eve.
Milo and I dressed up for dinner with friends. He chose my outfit which included a patterned skirt, a magenta slip dress, and pants – pulled together with a turtleneck, belt, duster vest, and boots. I think it kinda worked. I got to help shape his look – chocolate brown slacks, navy mock turtleneck, striped button down – and he topped it off with bracelets, adhesive face gems, his favorite blue sneakers, a matching bright blue fedora, and his lime green purse. We were retro layered fabulousness, ready for an early seating at one of my favorite Mexican spots.
When we parked Milo announced that he had been to this restaurant and did not like it. I was unaware of this information. Trying not to panic I asked if he’d be willing to select a different menu item and try something new. He thankfully agreed. Dinner was lovely. The ride home was treacherous…okay, that’s dramatic, but I was downshifting on hills and at stop signs as the snow continued to accumulate.
Milo opted to go to sleep around 8:30PM – a whole hour past bedtime – if I promised to wake him at 10 minutes ‘til midnight. So at 11:50PM I woke him up, let him wear one of my sweatshirts to keep warm, and we rang in the new year. Huddled under the dining room table we each ate 12 chocolate chips (they were the rounded kind so I say it counts) while listening to Guy Lombardo croon Auld Lang Syne. After a little cheers with water and sour candy strips he fell back asleep in my bed, watching Brandi Carlile’s Tiny Desk Concert.
It was my favorite NYE in recent memory.
Zooming Out
For as many years as I can remember I’ve been resolving to take more photographs. I tried and failed to capture the milestones or even simple moments with special people. I could never frame them quite how I wanted. From the days of my first film camera to the digital one I received in high school to my mini-computer of a cell phone, I was convinced that I took terrible pictures.
In 2025 I gave up on things appearing how I’d like and began to snap photos of almost anything, “This is how the world around me looks,” sort of a thing. Social media trends made me do it. For a whole year I posted compilations of these photos, some of them quite interesting, others rather poorly composed. But this exercise – a sort of reflection and gratitude practice at times – revealed my perspective of my own poetic, magical, bruised-but-beautiful, and lived-in existence.
2 0 2 5 —> 2 0 2 6
Looking back through those photos, I realize that it was a roller coaster year. Plenty of good came from it, though nothing seemed to come easily. Like those “photo dump” compilations, I’m still attempting to string all the things together…
I can’t begin to predict what this trip around the sun will bring. As always there are some hopes. Today I think what I hope for most is to keep the vision moving forward. I’m quite adequately practiced at considering and re-considering history.
So the year begins. A full moon rises.
As for my 2026 approach, there are no strict plans, no sure things: The readiness is all.
Again.