It’s the start of the Jewish New Year tonight, so I thought I’d write some thoughts reflecting on the year that was.
It was a big year in many ways, and also a year where not too many big or eventful things actually happened. Or at least not things that are visible things to the outside world.
Because while a lot has evolved in my personal life this year, the changes were mostly internal.
It was a challenging year, one filled with lots of up’s and down’s and in between’s. Life has a way of being like that at the best of times.
But as I sit here typing this, there’s a lot I want to say, but I don’t feel like I have the words to say it in a way that will give this year justice.
One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is the concept of light and shadows — how we can only appreciate the good in life if we intrinsically know the other side of things too — the part of life that pushes us to our limits.
But here’s the thing: you can’t have light without shadows, and you can’t have shadows without light. It takes both to be able to discern the difference.
It takes going through the hard stuff to recognise all that’s good in your life, all you have to be grateful for. Because how can you know one without the other? There always needs to be a reference point.
So while I don’t have the words to encapsulate a year that brought with it so many winds of change, I do have the ability to recognise that nothing in life is essentially ‘good’ or ‘bad.’
Most things have many levels of grey in them. And most experiences are coloured by our perception of them.
So as I sit here typing this out, I don’t have definitive answers. For a year where a lot has changed internally, so much has also stayed the same.
I’m still wading through life, still holding on to a form of faith, still carving out my path, and still moving in a forward trajectory. Or at least I’m trying to.
Despite everything, or maybe because of it, I’m not giving up, and I’m not about to.
There will always be periods of light, where things feel sun-drenched and beautifully transparent, and there will always be shadows to accompany them.
I suppose the trick is to cherish those good times and somehow learn from the hard ones.
And maybe that’s all we can ask for.
