Another Year Under our Belts

 

Everyone is reflective as a New Year's Eve approaches and I am no different. It is cultural and is drummed into us to do so. In fact, we could review the year at any time and not just as the end approaches. Having to discard the old 2014 calendar just reinforces this idea so here I go.

 

It was the year of retirement for me, and then just as quickly, coming out of retirement. What I learned is that I will work as long as I am able. But get back to me next year as I have been known to change my mind, about important things, on occasion.

 

Being one year older, I can say that I really felt it like I have in no other year to this point. The aches and pains from work, and then from not enough work, have increased. My stash of herbal remedies for various problems is growing as fast as my bank account is shrinking as a result of these purchases. We are in the process of purchasing a new bed so I may be able to trade in the herbs for a good night's sleep. I could have used the money to buy several truck loads of herbs, but the bed was not getting any more comfortable. Busylizzy and I thought we were falling in love all over again but it was only the sag in the mattress that brought us together every night and all night.

 

It was a year when my grandsons could look me in the eye without tilting their heads upward. Those little boys are not supposed to be doing that. When we hug, they hold back, just the way I used to do. Crushing ribs during displays of affection is not good.

 

It was a year when we seriously talked about a condo for the first time. It is still talk but talk always precedes action.

 

As in years past, it was year in which there were innumerable things and occasions for which to be very thankful. My faith, my family, my church, my friends, my physical health, and my relatively healthy mind are great treasures to me. I have an idea about what the New Year holds for me, but only in regards to those things which I can control. I am thinking that most of what will happen will be beyond my control. It is both frightening and adventuresome. The future is here before we know it and I say "bring it on".

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

 

 

And Yet Another Year

 

Fireworks are a symbol. They are used primarily as a means to show celebration. There will be fireworks tonight, although not in my city where they are banned. Does that mean that we cannot celebrate an old year passing and new one arriving? Probably not.

 

For some, there will be cause for celebration. It may have been a banner year in any of the many areas of life, a year to remember. In my own history, there are only a few years that I remember specifically because of what happened in that year. Maybe there are a dozen at most.  

 

Will this be a year that you remember? Will 2013 be the best, or maybe the worst year ever? These banner years cannot entirely be planned by us. Often random events will make a year memorable or not. It is a bad year to be born according to the Chinese calendar. Does that play out only if you believe it? What will your year hold?

 

 

To the extent that you have any control at all, may you attempt to make 2013 a great year. In regards to those events that will randomly come your way, unexpectedly, both good and bad, all I can wish for you is that God would grant you the courage, the faith, and the grace to take it in stride and to make the most of it. I have discovered, in my experience, that everything that starts good, or bad, does not always remain so. Change is certain, and to realise that gives perspective to life.

And to those of you who are nervous about the Chinese Year of the Snake, it arrives on Feb. 4, 2013, but actually 2013 years have passed and we will be into the 2014th. Think about it.  

Mysterious?

I am not one for making New Year's resolutions. They are difficult to keep and gives one permission to avoid resolutions the rest of the year. "I resolve to do" should be an on going process throughout the year. I do make goals and plans, but always keeping in mind that we know not what the future holds and our plans and schemes can be dashed in an instant.

What we can do quite safely is to assess the year that has just passed. It is history, it was played out, and it will never change, therefore, let us learn from it. Those things or ideas that worked should be repeated and those mistakes we made are not so bad, in retrospect, but are lessons on what not to do again.

Looking back, I can say that I have neither great successes, nor do I have great failures to ponder. In many ways, 2011 was a status quo year. However, there were some issues that will have to be resolved this year. There always are. I am optimistic about the future more than I am pessimistic. There is reason for both takes. If I were to make a resolution, it would be to go into these unresolved situations with confidence and preparation. I must be less passionate and more understanding of both sides of an issue, something that has always been a challenge for me.

I like to keep my posts as brief as possible so just before I hit the "Publish" button, I re-read what I have just written. After having done that, what this post sounds like to me is an elongated Chinese Fortune Cookie. Long on vagueness and completely open to interpretation. I guess I am also trying to be more mysterious this year.  Like how does the moon get to that position behind Mt. Baker at this time of the year?   

View From The Top

It was a sunny afternoon and the air was very clear. I was on the east end of town so decided to take a little detour and head up to Eagle Mountain.

The view is only as good as the air is pure. I noticed the air quality deteriorating the farther west I pointed my camera.

Mount Baker, as usual, was magnificent.

The late afternoon colours were warming up.

I always get a chuckle out of the fact that Mount Baker is on American soil, yet we Canadians get the best view of it, by far. It is not much to look at from the south, in Washington State.

And with the frosty roofs all lined up and the sun setting on the Sumas Prairie, I bid you adieu, 2011. You have been a good year but I am hoping your little offspring will outshine you.

And to all my readers, Happy New Year.  

Counting the Decades

It all depends on how you count, but I think we have not just entered a new decade. That happens next New Year's day.
Consider yourself at the beginning of time. There has been zero time before you were suddenly aware of your existence and one of the first things you want to do is keep track of time so you invent the calendar on day one of your existence. You have a choice what year you will write on your calendar, above where you write January 1. Would you put a 'zero' there because there has not yet been any time, or would you put one there because it is the first year? I think most people would agree that there was not a year zero, but there was a year 'one', or the first year.
If you called the first year 'One', then there had to be ten years passed before a decade was over and a new one began. Year two was called 'two' etc. When ten years had passed, the first decade was over and the very next year was the beginning of the new decade and that would be year 'Eleven'. (Count them on your fingers if you have to.) Therefore, our new decade starts in 2011, next year. We are really only in the tenth year of the present decade.

New Year Happy

Photo taken on Echo Road this last October

I have experienced so many New Years that I don't know what to say anymore. You heard right, the word machine has run out of words. Any comment I would make would be 'cliche'. There are no more original ideas to be expressed about the New Year, be they regarding health, wealth, or fresh starts. Resolutions are useless at this time of Year, so I will not even comment on that grand illusion, that the turning of a page on a calendar can usher a new era into your life. Jan 1 will be much like Dec 31, perhaps different only by the amount of daylight. An added digit to the markings on a calendar cannot change anything either, except for the likely chance of writing your first few cheques of the year with a 'stale date'. As for a new decade, what difference does that make? Those that care cannot even agree if the new decade begins in 2010 or 2011! If you count the years by ones or tens, the sun will still come up in the east and set in the west and you will still have to brush your teeth in the morning. The date changes nothing.

Nothing.

But.

Any time at all, between today and next Jan 1, 2011, you and I can change. We can set new goals, work to achieve old ones, resolve a conflict in our life, renew an old friendship, restore a tired relationship, lose some weight, change occupations, retire, say"I love you", confess a wrong doing, read a good book, stop watching so much TV, stop yelling at the kids, visit an aging parent, take a holiday, pay off a debt, watch a sunrise, plant a tree, go to the gym, give a chunk of money away, get to now a neighbour, learn some new words, sing, or go golfing on a work day. You see, the possibilities are limitless and it does not matter when you do it, just do it.

I told you I had nothing to say.

First Day of '09

So what else is new??

You obviously survived all the revelry, indulgence, and frivolity, or you would not be logging on to 'terryography'. Well, I survived too. I guess it is not too risky going to bed early with a glass of warm milk. I am required to be in fine fettle for the in law gathering later today. Bags under the eyes (bigger than usual) and staring inattentively into the distance when being spoken to would not impress anyone. I will report on this event tomorrow. I know. You can hardly wait.

So here are my predictions for the New Year, first, on the serious matters mentioned yesterday.
1. Barak Obama will surprise everyone by proving that he too is only human. He will stumble and fumble almost as badly as the outgoing Bush, but with more style and decorum. His ethnic supporters will be disappointed that he will not give them the nation's wealth on a platter, not that he wouldn't want to, but because America is broke. Period. He will find that the system is too entrenched in the old ways and the change he wants to implement will not be easy, or even possible.
2. Mr. Harper will do all the right things to appear to be compromising including implementing all the huge bail outs that the Liberals and the media are crying out for. It will be the undoing of Canada. Until. Yes, until he sees that Ignatieff is falling in the polls, if indeed that will happen. If it does, he will start once again pushing buttons and then call an election. His craving for a majority is almost as powerful as my craving for chocolate. But certainly, the economic meltdown will predominate most debate in the legislature.
3. "We aint seen nothin' yet" in terms of economic woes. There will be a rally in the markets, like we saw on the 29th and 30th, and when that has run its course, possibly in the next few months, look out. Also, because we are inching toward deflation, the tinkering governments will find a great way to convince us to spend our money and thus stimulate the economy. They will force inflation. They will do this by printing more money and sending cheques to all of us to help us in our economic hard times. More money circulating translates to the dollar being worth less and we will want to spend our saving before they are worthless. This is long term disaster. I could go on, but do watch for foreclosures across the country, both business and personal. Why do I say this? I do not wish it, but statistically, the average family in all of North America is 3 pay cheques away from insolvency. When double digit unemployment hits this year, it follows that the debts will become due, but cannot be serviced. I am sorry for those with heavy debt, but it is a consequence of our societal pressure to appear to be rich when in fact we are all living on credit.
4. The Arab (Muslim)/Israeli conflict has its origins in Old Testament times and is in the DNA of both people groups. It will not go away. I repeat. It will not go away. Israel has its Biblical right to exist in its 'Promised Land' and the Muslims will never rest until every "Israeli dog" is dead. This all sounds primitive because it is. It is primal. It is in the genetic code of the world. It will eventually play itself out just as the Bible prophesies, in spite of attempts by the UN or Barak Obama, or by anybody else and it will result in the end of the world as we know it.
Points 1-3 are opinion, but this is fact.

And now for a few inconsequential predictions for '09.
Oprah will continue to have body weight fluctuations, and will continue to know more than God.
Rick Mercer will continue to not be funny.
Mats Sundin will be one year older and not the man he once was.
Gordon Campbell will continue to believe in Global warming and carbon taxes even though the brass monkey's balls froze off this winter.
David Suzuki will be calling Al Gore to plan new strategies.
Chickens will remain in cages, at least until 2010.
The price of gas will be too high, no matter what the price of gas is.

If any of these predictions do not come to pass, you can call me on it, but do not expect me to pay any attention to you. :-)

Almost Done

A year end review is redundant. We were there, we know what happened, now lets move on. There were four major events of the last year that will have a huge impact on the immediate future and I would like to focus on that instead of simply repeating history. It is interesting that all four happened just very recently.

1. B. Obama became the president elect of the USA. A big story? Yes. But with the expectations so very, very high, it will be intriguing to see how it plays out. Will we really see the change that he promised and indeed was the cornerstone of his campaign? Or will his hands be tied by the cabinet he has chosen, the political realities of the day, and the economy he has inherited?

2. The attempted 'coup' in Ottawa in December. How will this flavour the politics of our land in the months to come? Will there be a conciliatory mood, or will there be pushing and shoving until another election is called? How will the new Liberal leader conduct himself. Will he become the leader the Liberals have been lacking for so long now, or will he also find disfavour and throw the party into even worse turmoil?

3. The continued spiralling downward of the world economy. We know it will get worse before it gets better, but how long and how deep will it infect our lives?

4. The recent air strikes against Gaza. Will world opinion continue to be against Israel? Will there ever be peace in that part of the world? Will Obama be able to use his influence to help those nations come to a lasting truce?

These are the four major history making events of the year. I would disappoint you readers if I did not have an opinion on each of these. Right? But that is for tomorrow.

Have a good time seeing in the New Year, but remember, all things in moderation. (except chocolate consumption)