It’s the end of January and winter has returned to Calgary after lulling us into a false sense of norm these past few weeks. Having just joined FAN, an email arrived asking for articles for the monthly newsletter. I love to write and I am looking forward to this new experience so here goes. This article will come out in September, the expected month of the annual retreat in Edmonton, which works out just perfectly for me as I live in Calgary. So as with every new year, the blank calendar awaits filling in with one’s necessary and hopeful appointments and to-do lists. This year’s list will, hopefully, be dominated by art related activities. Deadlines for submissions, web sites to be finished and a retreat in Edmonton. Besides de-worming the horses and scheduling my birthday gift of a shingles vaccine. Life, like art, is a constant challenge to see a vision in one’s mind and trying to actualize it. Gathering all of the bits and pieces needed to bring the idea into reality. Even in the smallest of gesture arranging a vase of tulips in the dead of winter and placing it next to a treasured ceramic sculpture of a hare created by a friend and artist, a little bit of the vision is realized and a smile emerges on my face and I look forward to the year ahead.