year's end is neither an end or a beginning, but a going on w/all the experience wisdom can instill in us.

i took a hike the last day of 2010 w/two of the best people i know.  the weather was unusually warm for december; it was raining & the snow was melting.  submerged in the woods with a shattered river to my left & a dissolving hillside to my right, i was immersed in this vanishing winter wonderland.  surrounding me was change; i could see it, hear it, feel it.  The dripping of the evaporating snow from the trees, the splashing & crackling of the fractured ice river, the mixture of crunchy & squishy footsteps, the sound of distant laughter & conversation of my friends (who, by this time, were no longer visible as i stopped every 5sec to take a photo).  These things resembled change, transformation, adjustment.  this hike, these photos, this experience provoked a kind of encouragement in me.  these simple ideas that a new yr supposedly brings are..normal, everyday occurrences.  new & different aspects of life should be embraced daily & the idea of looking to the past to explain our present & mold our future should be thought frequently.

happy 2011!  :)
--rae.