The toasts have been made.
The old is out and the new has arrived.
But, as I sit here, in the shadowy silence of my living room, I can't let go of the night, until I take a moment to reflect on the year that just passed.
I remember the darkness in 2012. It stands out because some of our darkest hours were our final hours -- a ship of fools, sailing toward a fiscal cliff...children, taken from us, before their lives had really begun. Every year has it's share of tragedy, and sorrow, and that pain should be acknowledged, and, where appropriate, honored.
But I can't linger on the darkness, when I remember so much light.
2012 was a year that I began the second half of my life. It was the year that old friends became new again, and new friends were found, and embraced. It was the year that I learned to love my wife more than I ever have before. It was a year that I saw my children do things I had never seen them do.
I saw very small gymnasts with very big smiles. I saw an Olympic swimmer do something that perhaps no one else will ever do again. I saw eighteen years of marriage. It was a year that I loved and was loved in return.
It was the year that the world did not end.
It was the year that I saw the world every day, through the lens of my camera.
I saw Disneyland and the ocean. I saw sunrises and sunsets and sunflowers. I saw icicles and parades and smiling children and towering mountains and hidden lakes. I saw hundreds of things that I can't even recall. I saw the beauty in the every day mundane world.
2012 left me in the company of those I love most, content, and smiling.
And last of all, a toast to the year before us...
May the new year find you at peace, but not content. May you strive for the better angels of your nature. May you learn to be the people that your mothers believe you to be. May you take life as it comes to you, accepting your sorrows, but growing from them, embracing your joys and learning to share them. May you lift instead of tearing down. May you hold the darkness at bay, with the light that you give.
May your lives be as blessed and my life is blessed by each of you.
Happy New Year everyone!
Chris
