Glitter in the Ashes:
by Charlotte Hack
A new year prefaces the marriage of ending with beginning, and an infatuation with change. Excitement ties the knot with promise, while the passing of time elopes, as each of us are faced with the vows of an assurance of a new full year, kindly infused with an abundance of time. As assuring and alluring as a new year can be, with the comfort of time it holds in its suitcase, it can also ensue an awakening to and awareness of the debris we are unable to carry onwards in our luggage. The wholly juxtaposing encounter a new year brings will be explored from here on out, bound by an attribution to the beauty and wreckage it deposits in its tote bag of promise, hope, and eclecticism.
A time symbolic with resetting, reflection, and renewal, the initiation of a new year typifies invitation and eternity. This, apace with an immense deterrence affiliated with the unknown, shapes a desolate reminder that an end is always near, accompanied by a desire to be steadily nourishing a life that is well fed and crowded with love. We find ourselves yearning for more, itching a change sized scratch, urging ourselves to employ the time that lays before us by virtue of its promises, despite its uncertainties and unknowingness. As daunting as it may feel on days blue with doubt, the time ahead of us is only ever ours. Mine, yours, ours. We must be creative, mindful, envisaging, and loving, as after all, there is only beauty in the time balancing ahead of us.
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice”, wrote T.S. Eliot in one of his Four Quartet’s, namely East Coker: a reminder that with the sunset of one year, follows new cycles of endless daysprings and elbow room to pursue, stretch, and exhale. With a nudge to the fragments to be saved and the remnants to leave behind, we must resume our journey through time, collecting rhyme and wisdom with each cautiously courageous step.
As “hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’.” (Alfred Tennyson), we may find ourselves confronted with the truth in the art of letting go (my personal favourite moment of reflection). The fearful performance of discarding the once serving components of our being, forces us to consummate new habitual practices that will take us each day further. What we may often forget with the blossoming Gregorian calendar is that in order to move forward, we must address our dirty laundry while letting the whispering and hopeful promises set out before us guide us towards tomorrow. As we swaddle ourselves with a blanket of tenacity, patience, and toughness, embroidered with petals and blossoms of virtue and honesty, we must donate the frayed clobber and dress up in our new, refurbished attire, symbolic of the change that we wish to follow.
Yet, at the entrance of a new year we may shake the apple tree of resolution and revision and have the universe deliver us oranges (Julia Cameron, The Artists Way). The abrupt arrival of resurfaced or unexpected agitation can pose a threat to the glossy embodiment we had envisaged for this chapter of rotation. Do not be fooled – this shipment is an essential reminder of the allegiance you must have with yourself in order to progress through the upcoming year with the knowing that with spectacle, must come wreckage.
Don’t get me wrong – revel in the glamour and auspiciousness of the dazzling lights framing the time to come. All I encourage is for each of us to resist being blinded by the pitiful spotlights that attempt to upstage the beauty. Unsubscribe from perpetual discomfort by releasing anguish and misery to illuminate the miraculous artefacts that silhouette your existence and being. Let all light, calm, and condolence permeate each day, as the whispering golden hour shimmer brightens the ordinary.
As the clock fleetingly ticks in mortality, wisdom, and finality, let this new year be your most hopeful passing of time yet. Surrender the wreckage and put it to bed in its most cosy pyjamas, as you salute the debris on your venture towards contentment. You may feel yourself to be temporarily without a vehicle. Just keep walking (Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way).