A New Year's wish

As I'm writing this, there aren't many hours left of this year. Keeping up with tradition, I made the new year's eve afternoon walk to take some photos. It's the fifth year I'm doing this now. You can see the previous posts here.

As mentioned last year, the weather has been different every time I've done this. It's gone from a pink moon over a landscape slightly touched by white (2009) to snow and ice (2010) to fog and frost (2011) to dark, windy and wet (2012). This year the afternoon was a serene, snow-free day with relatively much sunshine. A pretty typical december day in Skåne, minus the fog and rain, really. Not that many clouds, which bodes well for the fireworks tonight.

And as for the result of the photo walk... Well, I'll let you be the judge of that.

 The sun went missing for awhile, but returned once I was up the hill and it made the landscape glow in the last sunlight of the year.

And with that, let's finish with a new year's wish. Before, I've shared with you some of the wishes written by Neil Gaiman. They're still good so if you haven't read them you should go to his blog and do so. But this year I also wanted to end with a wish from my own heart to you.

I wish you all a happy new year! Celebrating the new year is one of the oldest and most universal of traditions or ceremonies in the history of mankind. The big sun wheel had once again made a whole revolution. In the western world the end of one year and the beginning of the next has been associated with one of the most important days for people living this far for the equator, winter solstice -- the darkest and most ominous day of the year. While it is no longer celebrated on that date, the symbolism of the climax of darkness and dormant (but not dead) nature and the beginning of a journey towards light and rebirth can still be part of the new year magic. A new year can, if we want it to, be a new beginning. A time to review the year behind us and make goals and dreams for the year in front of us. We walk into the unknown that is the future. Perhaps scarred, perhaps confident, perhaps excited, perhaps indifferent. Regardless of which, the new days are all there in front of us -- for us to fill with meaning. Some days will be remembered for years to come, others will be forgotten. We can only do our best in filling the year with days to remember as they are the days that, in the end, make up our lives.

So my new year's wish for you is thus: May 2014 be a year filled with dreams that come true, happiness, adventure and many new opportunities. May you find your path in life, your north star to follow, and find it worth struggling for. May you grow and create and thrive.

Whether this past year has been good or bad -- or, probably, both -- for you, let the new year be a reason to turn the page so you can discover a new chapter in your life. Find the challenges that will be worth the hard work because it's through challenges you reach what you most of all want and need. Remember, you don't fail until you give up. And if you do have to give up, may it be a surrender to a new path in life: to bigger and bolder dreams and to more fulfilling goals. A giving in to a new dream rather than a giving up on an old one, a closure of an old chapter so a new one can begin. Put past disappointments and failures behind you not to forget them, but to move them out of your path to the future. Let the bad things that might have hurt or stopped you this year be nothing but memories and experiences in the year to come. One bad chapter does not define the whole book.

And while you walk along your path -- clear and easy to follow or obscured and tangled -- let the happy memories and the positive things in you life light the way. Let yourself shine and help others to find their light when they can not see it themselves. Winter nights are dark, but in that they give us a reason to kindle a light. A light of life and hope. And it is in the darkness that we see it shine the strongest, not because it is stronger than otherwise, but because it is only then we truly see its strength and beauty. It makes us remember what is always there, hidden.

There's a saying that planting a seed is to believe in tomorrow. Why not let new year's eve be a reason to plant a seed right now? Just a little seed -- a thought or idea in your head or a small action. Even if it's just something really tiny, do it now. Maybe it seems futile today or tomorrow, as days can be dark and hopeless, but the seeds will always grow if you plant them. A small step always carry you further than standing still does. Plant seeds not just as a belief in a new day, but as a belief in yourself. Sow as many seeds as you can along the path you walk and rest assure that one day -- perhaps on the day you least expect it -- you will find that they have grown into a paradise garden. 

Happy New Year!