I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. – Groucho Marx

Today is New Year’s Eve 2016, which makes it a perfect time to reflect back on the year. For me, I decided almost a year ago to make it my goal to keep my face toward the sunshine and let shadows fall behind me.

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman

I tried, and though I will be the first to attest that no day was perfect, no week without frustrations and things which I did which I needed to apologize for. BUT, keeping hope, facing light, helped. The dark and negative tends to creep in if we let it. And facing the light, I found moments which illuminated my year.

Looking back, these are my 16 favorite moments of 2016 in photos and with quotes…

16 Favorite Moments of 2016

Be present in all things and thankful for all things. ― Maya Angelou

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.” ― Benjamin Franklin

“Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.” ― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.”
― Maya Angelou

“Why do they not teach you that time is a finger snap and an eye blink, and that you should not allow a moment to pass you by without taking joyous, ecstatic note of it, not wasting a single moment of its swift, breakneck circuit?” ― Pat Conroy

 

“some moments are nice, some are
nicer, some are even worth
writing
about.”
― Charles Bukowski, War All the Time

“Sometimes it’s moments like that, real complicated moments, absorbing moments, that make you realize that even hard times have things in them that make you feel alive.” – Nick Hornby

I love life because what more is there. – Sir Anthony Hopkins

All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. – Henry Ellis

When it comes to life the critical thing is, whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. – Gilbert Chesterton

It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning. – P.D. Ouspensky

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. – Anne Frank

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. – Maya Angelou

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. – Albert Einstein

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. – Henry Miller

 

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends.
To appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have a happy New Year! Sending warmth and wishes for a wonderful 2017!