I am not a midnight reveler when it comes to New Year’s Eve … I think it is more of a lifestyle thing than an age thing for me. I get up so early that come 9 or 10 pm most nights I am exhausted.
So with the closing of one decade and the opening of another, I decided that the best way for me to mark it was to watch the sun go down on 2019 on one side of Lake Parker and then come up again on the other for 2020.
The camera was completely in manual mode so I was adjusting aperture and shutter speeds in particular to capture the wonderful late and early tones as the sun lit the late and early skies. I hope you enjoy this little collection.
New years are always a special moment. Not because any one moment is different from the next, but because they tend to inspire us to reach for personal development goals as we head off into another year.
It doesn’t even matter if we attain them; it is the reaching that is important.
They also are the time of year when we look back at the previous one and reminisce on moments and accomplishments therein. If there were sad events in the past year, we acknowledge them but hopefully don’t languish. We all have these.
Looking back is a difficult perspective in life, as our memories in that respect are flawed. Mundane and typical happenings disappear into the clouds of our minds, and our immediate focus rests on one or two large events that dramatically affected us to the point where it earned its own slot in our memories.
So the problem with that is that in looking back, we subject ourselves to a distortion of the truth … one that can really affect our general happiness and outlook for our future.
It is one of my reasons for disliking pictures of family and friends. Pictures that serve as a reminder of people no longer with us, and smiles that were purely contrived for the person with the camera. It’s what makes us reminisce longingly for the “good old days”.
But this new year is the beginning of a new decade and with it comes a decade full of hopes and possibilities. So it gives us every reason to look forward and (momentarily at least) forget our past.
We can create resolutions of course and while I am as guilty as anyone of false resolutions, I would suggest that this year should be more about plans and a vision of how we want our lives to shape up. A decade may seem like a long time in looking forward, but how many of us remember 2010? Does it really feel like ten years ago?
So a ten year vision is relevant, as in 2030 those of us still alive will look back on this decade and wonder what we did with our lives. Hopefully I will be one of the “us” above. But each decade that passes makes that possibility less likely.
The average among us, after childhood and teenage angst, has about six of these decades to play with. So planning how we use them is not just relevant but important.
We owe it to ourselves to be aware of time. And we should always ask ourselves if we are using our time here wisely. Of course, the definition of “wisely” for each one of us is likely different and that is altogether fine. I mean, we are all supposed to live our lives in our own ways.
But whatever way you want to live your life, it should be a conscious decision. There will be many things that happen to you that are outside of your control, but the general direction of your life should be one that you set, adjust, and set again.
If we don’t chart a course for ourselves, how will we ever know if we get there?
When my girls were young, they referred to me as the plan-man and while I do some things that are spontaneous, I guess in the main, I try to follow a plan.
Plans give us direction. And vision gives our plan a purpose.
If ever a year was about vision, surely 2020 is it.
So, establish in your mind a vision for how you would like to spend this coming decade and then set a plan that allows you the opportunity to achieve it.
For my part, I want to focus my energies this coming decade on the loves of my life and the world that I live in. I hope you take this moment to focus your own energies on whatever is important to you.
And I wish you a very Happy New Year!
