As the sun sets on 2006, I send gratitude to my faithful readers as I close this chapter of my life as a daily Photographic Peace Quotes Calendar-keeper.

After 365 daily entries, I am ready to move onto the next adventure. Come visit me at my Windchime Walker blog to see what that may be.

I end this entry in the unshaken belief that "Peace is possible."

Does the execution of a tyrant make the world a safer, more peaceful place or does it simply add to the cycle of violence?

Are 3000 dead Americans enough? Are 600,000 dead Iraqis enough? When will it be enough?

Wasn't it Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection?

Four years ago this week, the harbor was frozen solid and ice fishing was a popular activity. Today there is no ice and our average temperatures here in southeastern Michigan have been at least ten degrees above normal.

And some people still question the reality of global warming?

Water as a human rights issue is not confined to developing countries.

In 2003 here in Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, 40,000 families had their water cut off for non-payment. It was one of the coldest winters in Michigan history. At one point, a third of the students in Detroit public schools did not have running water at home.

This was while Mr. Bush was spending billions of our tax dollars and sending the young people of this and other poor communities off to fight in his war to "liberate" Iraq.

This Blue Morpho butterfly landed in the exact center of a yellow metal butterfly sculpture in Detroit's Butterfly Garden. How many of us manage to land in the place where we will look our best?

I don't care if she IS making my favorite stuffing, I am NOT going to your mother's for Christmas dinner!

Sisters are always sisters, it's just that sometimes their paths go in such different directions that finding a meeting place can be hard.

Some cities go full circle and begin to look like where their inhabitants originally came from. Can you believe this is Detroit in 2006?

Each new day brings with it the possibility of peace, but how hard it is to believe that.

I've just started using this photo on my desktop. Every time I see it, it makes my eyes happy. Vivid colour does that.

My mother died after a good long life. Her passing was as gentle as a summer breeze.

But what can be said about the deaths of Iraqis, American troops and their allies, aid workers and journalists in Mr. Bush's war on and occupation of Iraq? How can we sit back and let it go on? More importantly, how can we stop it?

Politicians do what politicians are trained to do: make their campaign donors happy. It is not the individual politicians we must change, but our entire governmental system.

I used to turn up my nose at what I thought were ostentatious Christmas light displays. That was until I scooted into the middle of this display and found my child-self with her mouth hanging open in wonder and delight. Now I say thank you to those who take the time to create magic for their neighbors.

Whenever we take the time to look inside something, we find worlds we didn't know existed.

Phil and Scott have been loving partners for 18 years. In a society where more than half of all marriages end in divorce, shouldn't we celebrate couples like Phil and Scott as models of faithfulness?

There is a sadness underlying all the holiday preparations this year. Until we get out of Iraq, close down Quantanamo and stop torturing prisoners, joy will be hard for Americans to find.

When I saw my country's flag obscured through gauzy blinds, it looked right. I don't know if I'll ever feel pride in that symbol again.

In a country like the United States where so many of us have never experienced war firsthand, fireworks are pure entertainment. But for our sisters and brothers in Iraq? Pure terror.

Dissent is patriotic.

Fresh snow is so beautiful that the inconveniences it brings are easy to excuse. Beauty's like that.

There are times to look up and times to look down. With all that is happening in the world, I find the skies a great comfort.

Each of us holds the seed of peace within our hearts. May we find ways to nurture the growth, not just of our own seed, but of those of our sisters and brothers across the globe. These are seeds that need to come to fruition for our planet to survive.

As winter approaches and the trees have shed their leafy garments, I can see birds more clearly. I guess even beauty can obstruct the truth of things.

Even on the coldest days, a greenhouse protects tender plants. May we as a world community create such an atmosphere where the fragile flower of peace can grow and thrive.

European-Americans often forget that the people we call illegal immigrants may well be descended from families that were here before us.

There are countless flames of peace in our world today… most are hidden, each is different, and all are essential to the whole.

Either everything is sacred or nothing is.

Just as PhotoShop can turn an ordinary picture of brown leaves into a work of art, so our willingness to imagine a world without war can open our hearts and minds to new possibilities for peace.

AIDS stole my train buddy and heart friend Joel Payne on November 30, 1994. On every World AIDS Day since then, Joels' beautiful tenor voice sings his song in the surf of his beloved Pacific Ocean.

May the pharmaceutical companies open their ears and hearts to Joels' song, and make their life-saving drugs available to all AIDS and HIV sufferers across the globe.