Photos of the Week: January 4

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“Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” – Maya Angelou

The featured photo is the NY Eve morning sunrise on Whidbey Island where we spent the week after Christmas.

I selected two pictures from a whole sequence — and I don’t think Cooper was running from the heron. But looking at the photos, it just cracks me up!

Sticks and stones may break my bones — but they are SUPER fun at the beach!

The beach at winter – where kids and imaginations run wild.

Indoor vacation fun

We went to visit the Ballydidean Farm Sanctuary on Whidbey Island one afternoon. We met old cows, blind ducks, abandoned goats, and neglected pigs. What was incredible about the visit was the story of the couple that started it.

The couple wanted to have kids – but couldn’t on their own. They started down the road of adopting a child and didn’t know how long it would take. So they decided to pursue their other dreams — namely starting an animal sanctuary. Within a month of closing on the property for the sanctuary, they’d been matched with a baby and accepted two animals. Now they have a six-year-old child, over 100 animals and a non-profit in full swing.

We got a tour from the incredible woman who, along with her husband, founded the sanctuary. She smiled and told us, “We just said ‘yes’ to almost everything.” And wow, what a difference it makes.

It strikes me that we often can’t see the mark we make until we look backwards. So I love the guidance of the sign of the week.

(all photos are mine. I got the Maya Angelou quote from Real Life of a MSW)

61 thoughts on “Photos of the Week: January 4”

  3. What a wonderful sanctuary. You show your children all that is possible and good in the world, Wynne. A wonderful guide to life.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. What a beautiful way to spend New Year Eve! And now that you visited an animals sanctuary, it would be time to start eating less meat, as you surely felt compassionate with those animals…

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Such beautiful snapshots, Wynne. Cooper seems so at peace and full of joy at Whibley Beach and has a peaceful look of exhausted bliss back at home.

    Looks like you had a relaxing break and rang in the new year in calm style. Here’s to more kindness and patience in the new year to you all! 💕

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Wow, some Instagram worthy shots! Happy 2025, and I hope it continues to be as awesome as 2024 was for you guys!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Great Maya Angelou quote! That lead pic is especially good too! I love the farm animal sanctuary story. We visited one in upstate New York last year, where the owner got money to buy the farm by traveling the country, following the Grateful Dead, selling hotdogs outside their shows. That’s a lot of hotdogs!

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Whidbey Island looks so beautiful and peaceful. What a terrific place to start the new year.

    “We just said ‘yes’ to almost everything.” That reminded me of a conversation I had with a work friend. She is Hindu. When I went to her house, I was amazed to see it all decorated for Christmas. She told me her children are Canadian so she wanted them to celebrate all the Canadian cultural holidays as well as their Hindu traditions. When a school friend asked her daughter why she celebrated Christmas when she isn’t Christian, she replied, “At our house, we celebrate EVERYTHING!” What a way to be!

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  14. Beautiful pictures from your wonderful week on Whidbey. What a great picture of Cooper running from the heron! Plus the story of the couple with the animal sanctuary is so heart warming.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. wonderful, Wynne: such joy in all the photos; thanks so much for sharing; and love what that couple did in starting that animal sanctuary: the good that people do —- and yes, that sign to remind us

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  21. Wonderful post, Wynne. There are some extraordinary photos here. And I love the takeaway. “Say yes to almost everything.” I’m sure you know this quote already, by e. e. cummings, but I shall repeat it because it so perfectly fits:

    “i thank You God for for this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes…”

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