Hemingway’s full quote reads as follows: “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”  As this year closes, I have been reflecting on the year that was and my hopes for the year ahead. This quote captures both so well. Admittedly, this past year could be best characterized as a roller coaster ride that has left me feeling much like the aftermath of such a ride, winded and dizzy.  I have been focussing on the end and not at all on the journey, forgetting to appreciate the abundance that is around me each day. The smaller moments that create lasting memories.

I reached this epiphany yesterday as I carefully planned yet failed to perfectly execute another “backroads Jeep adventure” in search of scenery fitting for next year’s Christmas card. It all began with finding a gem of a book called Ontario’s Old Mills by Harold Stiver. The author has painstakingly located and photographed every working and historic mill across this huge province. The historian in me mind-melded with the photographer in me and I had a perfect road trip planned to The O’Hara Mill north of Madoc, Ontario and The Bedford Mills Falls mill north of Kingston. I never made it to my final destination, The Bedford Falls mill, as the great outdoors consumed me in Madoc.  Trudging through knee deep snow, I found the entrance to The O’Hara Mill, pictured above. The sun was bright overhead, the air stunningly crisp and clear, and silence reigned. I must have stood at this entrance for a good ten minutes just breathing in the fresh air. The path above led me through a cathedral-like forest to a clearing and then just beyond the clearing, the O’Hara Mill, covered bridge and a softly babbling brook. I spent much time in this peace-filled place taking pictures and just being. How could I forget that such beauty existed?

This year I wish for us to experience quiet peace and easy gratitude. Appreciate the journey, each and every precious moment of it! Perhaps Bob Marley said it best: “Though the road’s been rocky it sure feels good to me.”

If you would like to learn more about The O’Hara Mill, please visit their site here. Does the book Ontario’s Old Mills interest you? Check it out here. And if you would like to see the rest of the snaps I took yesterday, including one of the actual water wheel and mill, please visit my new gallery “It’s the Journey.”

Happy New Year to each of you!