New beginnings... I recently spent a very pleasurable half-hour, marking a brand new calendar with all the important dates in the year. Birthdays, anniversaries, things to do, reminders to self...

With the exceptionally mild December we enjoyed, I also got time to tidy up the garden a bit ­ time to make up for slacking off in Fall! Bulbs were planted, beds cleared of now-drooping plants, gardening implements cleaned and put away. I brought in some plants and placed them on sunny windowsills to await Spring.

The changing seasons have changed me in ways I wouldn't have thought possible a few years ago. I have started thinking cyclical, where time is concerned, not linear. Like a farmer, my family says. Each season is the beginning of something new. Even as I put the garden to bed in fall, I do so with infinite faith in the renewal of life. I know that most of my plants will survive my bungling and ­ squirrels willing ­ treat me to new shoots come Spring.

When we first came to Canada, the coming of winter signalled a shutting down of things. Used as I was to almost endless sunshine and warmth, I saw the shorter, colder days of winter as the end of something. No more. These days bring me the gift of time to cuddle up with a good book in front of the fire, to enjoy hot chocolate after a walk in the snow, to study seed catalogues and get ready for yet another Spring. To plan for and look forward to a fresh new start...

Immigrants make the biggest leap of faith ever when they come to a new country, hoping to put down roots. And through the changing seasons of despair and hope, of ups and downs, faith keeps them going. A firm belief that this, too, will pass and that they, too, will awaken to a bright new future.

Happy new beginnings, everyone!