Here we are at the end of another year. When I was a child I couldn't have imagined living to the year 2011 never mind going into 2012.
As the years get shorter (to me) there seems to be more going on. The weather played a lot in making this year memorable with the flooding that devastated Vermont. But at the same time the stories of strength and resiliently up and down the East coast after Hurricane Irene remain as a large part of the year.
Days and weeks blur together as I live my life. Bits and pieces pop up forever preserved in my memories. Sometimes it is as simple as the look of a butterfly or the color of a leaf.
The snow has come this winter in fits and starts. A little snow, a little warmth and then some rain. No I don't want a blizzard but some snow cover would be appreciated.
This is just an end of year ramble. What ever pops into my head not necessarily in any particular order.
I have always had faith that what will be, will be. That our family may go through some bad times but we would all come out of it stronger. Sometimes this happens sometimes it doesn't. In the sense of the word all. Sometimes the individual who strengthens the rest of us doesn't make it. They die. I prefer being up front about the language. We don't 'lose' people. Their physical presence in gone but who they were is still with the people that knew and loved them. Saying we lost somebody refers to misplacing them. Like losing your keys or your sweater. They aren't lost. They are dead. But and there is a but, the memories, the opinions, the way the affected you which in turn you affect others is always there. It goes along and travels through friends and families for reasons we don't understand. It is because of someone far in the past. What they said, what they did. Their name might be forgotten, but a laugh, the twitch of an eyebrow, an attitude and that person is still very much with us. We have lost no one. They are here, within us and around us.
Every new year is just another year. There is not cataclysmic change. Time does not suddenly change, attitudes are not improved, governments don't suddenly fall out of power and sick people don't suddenly heal. It is a date on a calendar. It putting up a new calendar because we have filled the old calendar up with the minutia of our lives.
But it is a time to hope. That maybe not on the first day of the new year but through those first weeks we can start to bring about a change. It doesn't have to be world change. It can be just in us. Something small that makes us see the world differently. Something like ripples in a pond will go out and affect others.
My little ripple is I save my change. I donate it to a food pantry and because I do that someone is able to eat and because they ate, their ripple began. It's not much out of my pocket but it is a ripple. We should all try something small and see where the ripples might go. A small gesture, a smile, a kind word, these are ripples that change lives. In recent years I have had 2 people thank me for being nice to them. It changed how they saw themselves. All I was, was nice. But it was a ripple and it spread out and good things happened.
Remember it is the small changes that grow, that become large enough to change your town, your state, your country, the world. But it always take us individuals willing to start the ripples that make the change. One lone candle will not illuminate the night but 100 will, a 1000 more so and a million will make the night bright as day. We have that kind of power. Lets use it to help others and to correct the injustices we see.
May 2012 bring change into your life. Small and wonderful or large and amazing, may it happen to you.
As the years get shorter (to me) there seems to be more going on. The weather played a lot in making this year memorable with the flooding that devastated Vermont. But at the same time the stories of strength and resiliently up and down the East coast after Hurricane Irene remain as a large part of the year.
Days and weeks blur together as I live my life. Bits and pieces pop up forever preserved in my memories. Sometimes it is as simple as the look of a butterfly or the color of a leaf.
The snow has come this winter in fits and starts. A little snow, a little warmth and then some rain. No I don't want a blizzard but some snow cover would be appreciated.
This is just an end of year ramble. What ever pops into my head not necessarily in any particular order.
I have always had faith that what will be, will be. That our family may go through some bad times but we would all come out of it stronger. Sometimes this happens sometimes it doesn't. In the sense of the word all. Sometimes the individual who strengthens the rest of us doesn't make it. They die. I prefer being up front about the language. We don't 'lose' people. Their physical presence in gone but who they were is still with the people that knew and loved them. Saying we lost somebody refers to misplacing them. Like losing your keys or your sweater. They aren't lost. They are dead. But and there is a but, the memories, the opinions, the way the affected you which in turn you affect others is always there. It goes along and travels through friends and families for reasons we don't understand. It is because of someone far in the past. What they said, what they did. Their name might be forgotten, but a laugh, the twitch of an eyebrow, an attitude and that person is still very much with us. We have lost no one. They are here, within us and around us.
Every new year is just another year. There is not cataclysmic change. Time does not suddenly change, attitudes are not improved, governments don't suddenly fall out of power and sick people don't suddenly heal. It is a date on a calendar. It putting up a new calendar because we have filled the old calendar up with the minutia of our lives.
But it is a time to hope. That maybe not on the first day of the new year but through those first weeks we can start to bring about a change. It doesn't have to be world change. It can be just in us. Something small that makes us see the world differently. Something like ripples in a pond will go out and affect others.
My little ripple is I save my change. I donate it to a food pantry and because I do that someone is able to eat and because they ate, their ripple began. It's not much out of my pocket but it is a ripple. We should all try something small and see where the ripples might go. A small gesture, a smile, a kind word, these are ripples that change lives. In recent years I have had 2 people thank me for being nice to them. It changed how they saw themselves. All I was, was nice. But it was a ripple and it spread out and good things happened.
Remember it is the small changes that grow, that become large enough to change your town, your state, your country, the world. But it always take us individuals willing to start the ripples that make the change. One lone candle will not illuminate the night but 100 will, a 1000 more so and a million will make the night bright as day. We have that kind of power. Lets use it to help others and to correct the injustices we see.
May 2012 bring change into your life. Small and wonderful or large and amazing, may it happen to you.
