New Year Contemplations

I never did see the value of celebrating the completion of an additional revolution of the earth around the sun.

I did not see why this was a reason to celebrate.

But now that I am older and wiser …. I know that any reason is a good reason to celebrate life.  I know that any date is a good date to make a fresh start about things we would like to see change on.

This morning as I opened my eyes and my windows the change in the weather was noticeable. A cloud cover brought in cold winds into hot Bombay.  It looked like it might rain. As I snuggled into the rajasthani quilt next to my children, I thought of the interpretations of the Mayan predictions for 2012 and wondered.

But the chill that the wind brought in, refreshed my mind and turned my thoughts to life.

I was the generation between an ailing grandma who raised me and a young daughter who was on the threshold of spreading her wings.

My grandma had lived a full, comfortable and happy life. A life that is nearing its end. Not a happy thought but not thinking about it won’t change the outcome. But when I see my daughter alongside my grandma, it is impossible not to feel thrilled and contented that my grandma leaves this legacy of her genes that will carry my grandma silently and invisibly into the future. My daughter is blooming with life, ready to go to university, ready to find an engaging occupation, ready to find love and ready to create a productive life for herself. She is the fresh fluorescent shoots of little leaves of spring. And she is the legacy that my grandma will leave behind. My grandma’s life is being celebrated through her great grandchildren.

And as the date on the calendar changes, this change of  guard, this passing on of the baton of life is staring me in the face.

Never before has the morning of January 1^st alerted me of such poignant winds of change, both literally and figuratively.

Life –  it must be celebrated.

jm

Jan 1st 2012