Good Thoughts for a New Year

By Marylyn Cork

Autumn in northern Idaho this year was truly a joy. It made up for many of the excesses and deprivations of the rest of the year. The colors were spectacular. For once, I had no desire to stay home to rake leaves, put away gardening tools, or even to wash my dirty windows. I didn’t protest, as I sometimes do, whenever my sister Rachel took a sudden notion last fall to throw over a day’s work and hit the road, the car stocked with a big thermos of coffee and a picnic lunch. It was time for the sisters to ramble.

The fact that it rained every third day made these choices easier. I don’t complain about the rain. After the summer of 2021, I may never complain about the rain again.

Rachel seldom gives me advance warning about her road trips, and she does love to drive her purple Buick sightseeing the country. I decided this year never to say no. I’m not getting any younger and I’d better make myself available when she wants me to be. It could be that the colors of fall in 2021 would be the last I’ll ever see.