Gently, in the heart

To you, my dear and most patient friends, I offer my sincerest apology for being away for so long. I pray that you have had a blessed Christmastide and that the new year has begun well for all of you. Family and friends have needed me, and there has been little time left over to spend here. I have missed you all very much and I am grateful that you have waited for me to return.

It has been three years since I took the first step on "A Trail of Flowers," and so much has happened since then that it seems as though much more time has passed than that. The seasons have come and gone, though it appears as though Winter weather will not come at all this year to my little corner of the world. I do not miss the bitter cold: in fact, this January reminds me of those youthful days I  spent along the banks of the Mississippi River. It is almost balmy now as it was then, and so I send these warm words to you in the bleakness of Winter, along with the hope that you never forget, dear friends, that I hold you all "gently, in the heart."   

"I'll never forget the days of my youth. When the waves rippled between my toes, taking the pink and silver grains of sand back out to the depths of the sea. There was a peace then; an indescribable feeling of immortality in the ebb and flow of the tide, and the seemingly endless stretch of beach and sky. Now as I gaze out upon those same sparkling waters, I realize that youth is never left behind, but is carried always, gently, in the heart." --Hetty King of Avonlea