A New Year

"It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. . . That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.” - Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers (Peter Jackson movie version)

Now we come to it - the new year. Another day, a reason to purchase a new calendar. Maybe a time to reflect, but I have stopped making goals and resolutions. I think this is an error on my part, for we all need something to reach for . . . something to have hope about, whether it is as large as saving an entire land from darkness or as small as purchasing a longed-for object, or creating something big or minor.

Hope springs eternal in the heart of humanity, no matter how much darkness we see, or how much rain falls. Rainbows do come, after all, at some point, even if we don't live to see them.

Life goes on.

Here's what the sunrise looked like this morning:

How can you not have hope on a gray day when it starts out with a little pink?