Here we are….finally. Did you wonder if we would make it to this point? We have reached the last day of the year 2020. What a long haul this has been.When we stood at this threshold last year looking forward, we were such innocent babes. We had no idea what we were facing. The excitement and anticipation of the coming year bubbled up and overflowed within our spirit. Just a short time in squashed all of that.
I’m sitting here now, my usual cup of coffee at hand, listening to an intermittent rain falling, while the world outside my widow is shrouded in a light fog. I stood out on my back steps earlier taking photographs of the fog draped woods. The socks I wore quickly wet from the leaves I haven’t swept away. I could feel the heavy mist as it swirled about, falling onto my cheeks as I took shot after shot.I love the mysterious feel that a fog, even a light one such as this, brings.
A lifetime ago I lived in Louisiana. I had never in my life seen a fog such as could roll in there. A fog so thick you could barely see your hand held in front of your face. A fog, frightening to stand in much less try to drive.
The approaching new year has much of those same feelings.
We don’t know what the new year will bring. Will it be more of the same? We know we still have leftover problems from this year to deal with, but will we face and handle or will we struggle all the more? Fighting a pandemic dragon seemingly with a cardboard shield and a stick for a sword? Or will we have grown strong in the fight through discoveries made by education and determination? Will we face this coming year with excitement filled with hope for better, or with a dread brought on by those unresolved issues? As the clock ticks down to that final moment, will we stand at the ready to celebrate this year’s leaving or will we have called it a night early, hiding away from the unknown that is coming?
So many questions, so few answers.
I’m looking out the window at the fog, the woods out back draped in the mist but not hidden. I know those woods. I grew up here, I have spent many hours in those woods. From pretend adventures to real healing. I understand though, that even as I know my way around, the possibility is great that someone or something that does not belong there can be lurking about. The knowledge of what is, and the knowledge of the possibilities, strengthen me.
We danced into the year 2020 with excitement and anticipation. We laughed, we sang, we watched what ever symbol of the area we resided in fall to welcome in the new year. This has been a year that has tested us all. We have struggled through storms that have torn the sails and left us adrift. We have battled seen and unseen demons. The unexpected rising up like a rogue wave on the ocean of our life, threatening to overcome. Yet, we stand here, staring it down. Wounded and weary, but stronger. Over the course of this year, we have faced the dark, we have learned from it, we have grown because of it, we have become better.
So yes, look to the new year with anticipation, hope and excitement. It is a new year, a new beginning, a new dawn.Look to this year as it passes with this quote from a knight’s tale in mind; ‘you have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting”. Then move away, close the door, turn the page on this year and look to the next.
If I could give a gift, on this last day, of the last month of the year, it would be a lifting of the fog. The fog created by the storms of this time. The fog that has muted the many joys, the peace, the excitement that could have been. I would lift the fog and allow the light of the new year to shine down upon us, to glow within us, to brighten all that had been dark. I would offer the reminder that life is but a journey through our given time. It will not always be an easy trip, nor should it be. Still, that even in the dark, there is light, even in the sadness there is laughter, in in despair, there is hope.
Words from The Dirt Road 