This is the traditional end-of-year post when I get all teary-eyed and write about gratitude.

It’s also the time of year when I begin to lay out a photo book for my husband, Scott, called “Our Year in Pictures.” His birthday is on January 9 so it’s a perfectly-timed gift each year. As I scroll back into photos from January, this year began like so many other years – with an extraordinary journey to someplace new and exotic.

I have a visceral memory of sitting in a long boat, skimming across Inle Lake in northern Myanmar – witnessing the noplace-else-in-the-world tradition of leg-rowing Intha fishermen – moved to tears at the beauty of the place, and of my good fortune at being able to experience it.

There were so many experiences on that journey that fed my soul:

• Lifting off at sunrise in a hot-air balloon over the plains of Bagan, littered with 2,000-year-old stupas, temples and shrines in every stage of disrepair
• Photographing mothers with their babies slung over their backs as they work in the market or the field – faces slathered with a yellowish paste called Thanaka, an all-in-one cosmetic, astringent and sunscreen derived from the bark of a tree – as has been used for 2,000 years
• Feeding lunch to dozens of barefoot, burgundy-robed monks at their monastery in Mandalay
• Riding the Yangon Circle Line train, used daily by thousands of locals to get to the market to sell their produce, chickens or other goods – all of which are hauled aboard with seconds to spare before the ancient train rocks and rumbles to its next station
• Hiking into the Chan hills to witness traditional ways of cultivating the land, with hand tools and bamboo ox-carts

The first six months of 2016 were filled with more such magnificent adventures: swimming with Whale Sharks in Baja; exploring the entire isle of Ireland; a site inspection to Buenos Aires and into the pampas; cruising the coast of Croatia . . .

And then came the fateful day in early July when my lifestyle ground to a halt. The cancer diagnosis – and subsequent healing and recovery – has brought blessings and lovely personal connections that I treasure. This journey is nothing I would have volunteered for, mind you, but it’s brought me a lovely respite from a rather crazy lifestyle and an opportunity to review how I want to spend my time going forward.

Yes – there will always be travel – but it’ll be richer and deeper and more meaningful. I’ll be traveling to Patagonia on a research trip for an upcoming WOW Travel Club adventure. I’ll be heading to Michigan to visit family. I’ll be traveling to Croatia and Slovenia on a wonderful WOW journey in July. And I think that South Africa will be on my radar for later in the year, too. And I’m hopeful that my new division – offering small-group philanthropic journeys to the developing world – will finally get launched.

But no matter how far I roam, I will always be grateful for this enforced, end-of-year, stay-at-home time which has given me a wonderful opportunity for introspection and appreciation for what matters most: family, friends and fabulous memories of a life well-lived.

And thanks to you, dear readers, for being part of it!

Happy New Year!