Photo from “Portraits Of My Life” show, my photos at the Redux Art Gallery, Dorset, Vt., January 9, 3 to 6 p.m. Public is invited. No admission.

January 1, 2010 – Welcome to a new year, full of promise and challenge, pain and loss, joy and growth, love and enchantment. Joseph Campbell writes of the cycle of life that as one grows up, gets older, the body begins to fade, but the spirit can grow brighter. We can retain a zeal for life, and let the body go, in many ways.

In our culture, where fitness is a cult and corporations advance the idea that doctors and  machines and medications can keep us alive and well forever, and that we should be kept alive forever so that they can sell us the stuff to do it, I am exploring the idea of expanding my zeal for life in other ways as well.

By finding love, telling my stories, challenging myself to do new things, and to do them well. To do good, share what you know, opening the generous, giving and gentle parts of ourselves to others.

I believe in the zeal for life, in finding the peaceful and undamaged parts of myself, and freeing them.  I can’t wait for the year to come on and reveal itself. I will do my part – working hard, creating stories, taking photos, learning how to be a thoughtful and caring lover, and finding more peace.