On one of the last days of 2015, we ended the year where we began it, taking the same lovely canyon hike in about the same freezing 10 degrees. We didn't really plan to do this, but I'm sure glad things turned out that way.
Though some people might like to end the year somewhere other than where they began it, perhaps to symbolize progress or change, I found a strength and comfort from being right back where 2015 began. For me it symbolized that even after all the challenging, wonderful, painful, exciting, heartbreaking, crazy experiences of the year that I couldn't and didn't foresee in the beginning, I and we were still standing. We made it! Hopefully better and stronger, but still together, still ourselves, coming full circle to marvel at life and all its surprises and to be reminded that the upheavals of life are like the forming of mountains: geological processes are at once violent and turbulent--crashing and pushing--and wearing and weakening--beating and eroding--and it's through these processes that glorious landscapes, and people, emerge.
Oh, to list the tragedies and triumphs, the misfortunes and marvels of the past year! They're many, and many of them are too personal to share, but somewhere between my sobbing broken heart as I buried my beloved cat and the hysterical laughter in surround sound at my dining room table during family games and meals, my own tell-tale strata was laid that shape and define me.
This hike was perfect food for thought for other reasons, too. I was very upset to find that since our last visit, someone had vandalized one of my favorite spots.
I actually felt personally violated since this place holds a place in my heart and someone thought it fine to defile it. I do not understand vandalism. But I couldn't help but think of this as a series of scars. Some people see scars as ugly and disfiguring, a ruination of perfection. But scars tell a story and they bear record of survival, healing, and overcoming as well. With the ugliness of the spray paint comes the reminder that the rock is not moving, it's still standing firm.
Also along the way were reminders that every kindness, every effort to cheer is a gift and a light and it doesn't take much to share those things with others along the way of life.
Sharing with fellow travelers.
Marking and brightening the way.
And so we look out from where we are today toward another year of the unknown.
Ready or not, we've got to take it on.
I just hope I can always see the forest for the trees.
