Bidden or Unbidden

It is something of a tradition that we find a cabin in California to spend New Year's with friends.  Only an hour away is Julien, California, a small town in the rolling mountains of ranches and agriculture in the southern part of the state.  This is Steinbeck's land; the brown dry hills cast purple shadows in the setting sun, the wide expanses are home to ranging cattle and horses, orange and grapefruit farms, winding roads with produce stands, and here in Julien, apple pies and cider.  

This last week we have been in San Diego, with another group of family members and dogs.  And yesterday we celebrated New Year's Eve with a short morning Tae Kwon Do before a lunch with extended family and the drive out to the cabin.  In a closing moment of silence, I reflected on the space, the identity, the time that has been covered in this year.  Another language, another currency, another way of interacting with the people I love, a different balance of finding satisfaction in life.  

And now 2016 has begun and it is a time to reflect on what may be coming in the future.  What will this year bring?  It is still yesterday's tomorrow, just like every other day.  The future is a continuation of many things in the past.  It seems that I will be filling in an outline that I have been constructing for many years this year.  There has been so much shifting around for so long; building happens in many different ways.   

The cabin is beautiful.  We watched the sky from the deck to bring in the new year, and I saw a shooting star.  I awoke early in the morning to see a rim of pink light creeping up behind the bare mountains, putting the night sky still filled with stars gently to bed. 

We have celebrated a day like every other day, hidden as another year, royal with friends and the beauty of our natural world.  These things are always here, rising and falling, soft and warm, glowing around us.