On New Year’s Eve I stood in awe at my back door. The last of 2017 blazed white and stark: sun on snow. Blinding and beautiful. Demanding. Not to be ignored.
“Do you have a lesson for me, 2017?” I asked.
I listened. Nothing. But in the listening, ironically, I saw. The air danced with tiny prisms, minute shards of ice twinkling. Was 2017 winking at me?
Maybe the lessons of 2017 don’t come until 2018. Maybe never.
But still the imperious, taunting beauty. Isn’t it trying to say something?
I got a camera for Christmas. I was so excited! But the memory card got nothing. I tried it back in my old camera. Still nothing. “Why are there no pictures?” I asked my cameras, old and new. They, like the old year, answered nothing.
That’s a lot of Nothing with which to end a year. Or with which to begin a year.
But the beauty is constant. Radiant and sparkling. Cold and soulless. I cannot show you, dear reader, and I cannot seem to hear what it is saying. It has sealed the old year and encases the new, tight-lipped. I meander from door to window, wishing I could take a picture. Wishing I were 6 so I’d have the problem-solving skills I need for this digital world. But I’m not and I don’t.
So for now some good coffee, a comfy robe, a blog post. A thank-you to all who have left a friendly note here. A determined turning-to, armed with chocolate, so to smite the Nothings.
January 2, 2018 at 10:02 pm
But, you have nowhere to go except up from those nothings, right? 🙂 If that new camera has an “auto” setting, just put it there and let the camera do the work until you want to pursue it. My good camera is a year old, and it’s still on auto because I need a human to talk me through it. YouTube just doesn’t do it for me with regard to the camera. But that is one of my goals for this year. Wonder if we can do it? 🙂
January 3, 2018 at 12:15 am
It was on “Auto” — I think your camera has better manners. Will we triumph over these beasts of modern times? We shall see….
January 3, 2018 at 2:49 pm
Perhaps the manufacturer might have a help line that will banish the nothings? Good luck!
January 3, 2018 at 3:59 pm
Thanks!