Nine things you are looking forward to in 2009

It's the end of another year, and while it is tempting for many of us to close the door quickly on this particular one and not look back, it might be better to think of the opportunities that always lie ahead.

I'll challenge each of you to come up with nine things you are looking forward to in 2009. If you can come up with three, keep pushing. The other six are out there.

Better still, take a piece of notebook paper or a journal page and hand-write them all on there with your new year's resolutions. If you have a facebook or a blog, share it with your family and friends.

Sometimes just the act of writing it down makes it more real. Or maybe you like to say them out loud to a friend. Whatever it takes to make 2009 the best year it can be.

I'll include a few quotes here from a website I've stumbled across. BrainyQuote.com is a great resource for that perfect bit of inspiration to add to an email (or a blog post ;) from people who said it perfectly.

So goodbye to 2008:
"It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours."
-- Harry S. Truman

"You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space."
-- Johnny Cash

And hello to 2009:
"Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be."
-- Jose Ortega y Gasset

Here's hoping you a bright and wonderful 2009

A picture worth a thousand words

If you have been to the Rensselaer Library this fall, you might have noticed the display of large artworks and photos throughout the library. These images were provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of a project to make important images of our history available for the public. The Picturing America program is also available online and gives details about the images and their meaning to us as a nation.

On Dec. 2, CNN had an interesting story that ties in to this collection. Katherine McIntosh of Modesto, Calif. turns 77 this week. She is one of two young children, faces turned from the camera, pictured with their mother in an iconic photograph depicting the Great Depression.

McIntosh, who remembers the hard lessons she learned as a migrant child living in a tent with her mother and siblings, says the photograph brought both shame and determination to her family and is still talked about the family today.

These photos and paintings are part of our national story. We really hope you take the time to check them out and see what stories they inspire in you.