Endings and beginnings

My favourite moment of the year

I’ve transported my life and my family to Spain for a month over Christmas and New Years. The dark, damp and rainy north makes even the most easy going soul depressed and melancholic. Of course you could go into a cosy hibernation with Christmas decorations and spiced hot wine, but I’m way too restless and with a bunch of energetic kids around, staying inside for too long is not an option.

So, I fled it all and have placed myself in the middle of Spanish life with a gastronomic food market around the corner, constantly open bakeries (or at least it feels so to me) and fantastic, yet simple and torn down wine bars. But to me I’m not only fleeing an unpleasant climate, I’m also giving myself a clear end of this year and a great overview to see my life from another perspective. To take a step back, or away, from where you’re standing is a classic and powerful tool to know where to move forward.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

― T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

For me Christmas is a warm cosy hug to finish off the year. A year that always has provided both ups and downs. But the beginning of the New Year is my favourite part. You throw away your old calendar to break open a brand new book where the blank pages will creak and yearn for adventures and challenges. A million activities are waiting at your doorstep. You have a chance to review your life actions and maybe go wild and bold, or decide to stay put and find peace is stillness.

When losing yourself in all this dreaming of the next year you end up with a sense of spring around the corner. You can feel a warm, breezy summer wind caress your face. That is where there is hope in this somewhat dark and hostile world.