There’s a sun dial on the campus of Wells College outside of Syracuse, New York. At the base of the sun dial is a bronze plaque, and on the plaque is a poem. Although attributed to an unknown author, the poem is often credited to America author, educator, and clergyman Henry van Dyke. The poem reads:
The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past.
Before it, sleeps the unborn hour
In darkness, and beyond thy power.
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour, no longer thine.
One hour alone is in thy hands,
The NOW on which the shadow stands.
As someone who spends way too much time either living in the past or worrying about my future, I’ve thought a lot about this poem over the decades since I memorized it. Whenever I catch myself gazing too long and hard at my own navel, this poem always snaps me out of it. It calls to me from the back of my mind, from out of the dark, shadowy recesses that make up my memories and my anxieties.
December is traditionally the time when we reflect on the events of the prior year and start making preparations for the coming year. I really don’t want to think about what we’ve gone through this year, and I’d just as soon get it over with. Not sure I really want to think about what’s gonna happen in the coming year either.
For now, I’m just happily cruising around in the moment. It’s Christmas time. The kids will be here in a few days to spend the holiday with us. We’ll eat lots of good food and way too many cookies and pies and chocolates. We’ll play board games and card games. We’ll enjoy our traditional Christmas morning breakfast together before sitting around the Christmas tree to hand out presents. We’ll make an awful mess with the wrapping paper and argue over whose turn it is to clean it all up this year.
I’m also spending my time in fun activities and hobbies. I’m building a Revell 1/72 scale model Millennium Falcon. It was a Christmas or birthday gift a few years ago, and it’s been sitting around gathering dust and waiting for me to build it. Now is the time.
I’m also enjoying learning about photography and filming as a new hobby. One of my favorite recent pictures is this Spider-Man mug. I really enjoy the way I used background and perspective, along with a bit of post-editing to put the shot together.
I’m also finishing up a short story this month for the Writers of the Future contest. It’s been a few months since I sent anything in to them. I’m excited about this one, and I hope they enjoy it. Will it win? Meh. Probably not. Even if it gets only an Honorable Mention, I’ll be happy that I completed it. It’s a good story. It kept me entertained while I wrote it. The story came relatively easy and was a pleasure to write.
I’m not one to make resolutions for the new year. I set goals for myself, sure, and there are things I want to get done. But I tend to do those things all year long, not just at the end of the old year / beginning of the new one.
For now though, I’m happy just to kick back and take things one day at a time. One hour at a time, more often than not. The last several years have taught me some valuable lessons. One of the most important lessons was simply a reminder that I control very little of what’s going on in the world. Practically nothing, in fact. The only thing I can control is me, and the only time I control is the single hour currently in front of me. So I’m choosing to spend that time doing the things that bring the most value to me and letting everything else go. Because, really, what else can you do and still maintain your sanity?
I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, and I hope you make time to enjoy it in whatever fashion brings you happiness. Here’s to another year gone by and another just ahead of us. Let’s make the most of it.
