Fifteen years ago this evening, I started writing this blog as an exercise to give purpose to my interest in photography. My thinking was that while photography blogs were all the rage with the growing world of digital cameras, I didn’t want to add to that noise. Trying to figure out how to channel some level of creativity, I remembered that at one time, I entertained ideas of writing. That was it. I’d take a photo and write something to it and I’d do this for 365 consecutive days. In this sense, I was hoping to ride the emergent future with words emanating from my imagination as a kind of propulsion system into the depths of me.
Two thousand two hundred and ten blog entries and more than two million words later, I’m as keen on writing as I ever was while my photography has taken a backseat unless we are traveling.
When I reflect on the intervening years since that first blog entry, I’m left gobsmacked with how far intention can bring someone. Resolutions at this time of year are meaningless when not backed with solid follow-through. Your intentions must become your habit, or the years where you had the opportunity to meet your ideals will have been wasted on wishes you were never really ready to bring into your life.
So, where did our intentions bring us? Caroline got her associate’s degree; I wrote a book. We rafted rivers in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Alaska, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Croatia. We visited Europe on three occasions, spending about 70 days exploring Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, and the Balkans. Caroline learned to weave, published the newsletter of her local fiber guild for several years, and even became president for two years. I started a very fulfilling exploration of synthesizers along with starting a floundering virtual reality game company.
Our New Year’s celebration happens for us at 4:00 p.m. MST when we call my mother-in-law Jutta in Frankfurt, and she goes over to the window opening it wide. At midnight in Germany, explosions from a crazy assortment of fireworks might convince some that war has broken out or at least madness. We’ll have a webcam or two open so we can watch the festivities while Jutta endures the freezing temperatures for half an hour so we can be witness to the sound, sights, and merriment that arises over the city Caroline was born in.
Afterward, we’ll be heading to Denny’s in recognition of it being the place 15 years ago where I effectively launched my blog while sharing a banana split. Back then, I simply chose a convenient spot and moment to grab a photo to give some focal point to starting the writing exercise. What I was becoming more aware of was how our everyday intention to live fuller lives was shaping things. We were choosing not to live life as a series of yearly resolutions that we would fail to follow through with, but instead, we were practicing being flexible enough to flow with serendipity into the many opportunities that others fail to embrace.
Is it a good idea to explore things recursively? Was our New Year’s Eve date with Denny’s ultimately fortuitous or just another moment in happenstance? Who really knows, but just as repeatedly practicing a skill improves the quality of what comes out of it, such as with languages, musical instruments, knitting, weaving, coding, or writing, maybe going for a banana split again will pave the way for another amazing 15 years?
What I’m certain about is that nothing lasts forever but also that we do not live our lives waiting forever in the hope something will happen. We go forward and embrace the things we don’t know, explore the places we’ve not seen, turn over the leaves to find what’s hidden, and are delighted with outcomes that are often unpredictable. Of the things we do know, we cherish the knowledge, love, experience, memory, and opportunity to celebrate the many facets of what our lives have been so far and where they could still take us. Happy New Year, and hello 2020.