Mockingbird Hill Lookout HELLO 2019 & HAPPY NEW YEAR

I welcome 2019 in a way I have never welcomed a New Year before.   

It's a sign of the times!  

With the timing of retirement a few months ago, my life took a 255° turn.  In ways I feel like I am four years old again.  I do not have to go to school. I take afternoon naps. I do not have to work. I have lots of play dates. I have loads to learn!  I am finding my way in retirement and I have been open to letting signs guide me.  So far the direction I am headed feels good and it feels right.  At times I stray but that's when signs and advice help get me back on track.  I look forward to venturing down new avenues this year where I can grow in ways I have not grown before.   And so...I am ready to begin!         

As you can see above, I already how something to show for 2019.  For a few years I have wanted to be out hiking on New Year's Eve and celebrating at mid-night on a mountain top.  For whatever reason or another it just did not happen.  It's not for everyone but it is for me and I was fortunate to find some others who are on the same page in life as me.  

We began hiking up to the Mockingbird Hill Lookout out in the Ghost Wilderness around 10:30pm.  It was pitch black with a sky full of a million stars.  It was an incredible sight!  It was -18°C at the start, I don't know what it was with windchill, and there was a windchill.  I was layered up for that.   

Our pace was somewhat on the slower side taking time to admire the sky and to adjust layers.  We were not quite at the Lookout at midnight but we stopped anyway to bellow out "HAPPY NEW YEAR!".  I looked at my tracker to see it show 12:00.  Here I am a second into 2019 out doing what I  have never done before, venturing down that new avenue and learning already.

We arrived at the Lookout just as the clouds opened up and flew flurries down on us.  It did look pretty.  The lights from our headlamps made the snow sparkle.  I put a thought on the back-burner and that thought was I need to be back here in daylight one day.

We got the fire going, opened the champagne bottle and roasted marshmallows.  

With all my extra layers on I was very comfortable.  

I felt warm with delight!   

My head decoration flashed red and blue all night but this is what I got when I took the photo.  

I know going forward for years to come that celebrating in this way is very doable.  That is as long as all conditions are favourable.    We had everything on our side last night and this morning.  The whole experience seemed surreal.  

...and to you I say...