Time to reflect on 2012, and gracefully chart our course for 2013.
TURN OF THE YEAR
December brings the sun down low,
sending tree shadows on a long
determined quest across
the snow,
a blue-gray, bare and spindly throng.
December leads the mind to dwell
on things determined,
dared, and done,
and things deferred or botched as well
since these twelve months began their run.
December does all this. But see,
at noon the shadows brightly shift
the other way. And so should we
turn to accept our new year’s gift:
Grace to step past what we remember,
shrugging away that shadow’s hold,
and plot a course toward next December
neither abashed nor overbold.
—
— Robert B. Shaw
Author, Aromatics, 2010.
Cascade Mountains, Oregon photo courtesty Mike Putnam photo.