Sunday, December 23, 2012

Annual Reflection

Yes, we measure time by artificial constructs. But we do measure; and we make our rituals to observe the passage. December has always been my month for reflection. So what did I come up with this year?

A year can hold a lot.

What it holds will be good, bad and/or indifferent, in different combination and to different degrees for each of us.

Mostly the indifferent fades over time and we hold onto the good. Or hope to. Sometimes, as for the families and friends of 26 people who were killed in Newtown, Connecticut, last week, the bad in the year is too overwhelming.

The image on this page is a patchwork of the good from my year 2012. It represents travel to places I enjoy, time spent with family and friends, a satisfying hobby, one happily-achieved "bucket list" goal and one promise kept. And unseen on the page are the shadows, sometimes directly behind these images, plus a whole lot of indifferent connective tissue. Only when I see these moments all together here does it occur to me that everything good had to be made to come about; nothing just happened.

What will next year hold? There's no way of knowing. There never is. You must live it to find out.