I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year.
I blame my lack of resolution making on the snow. It has taken all of my concentration to get me and my Hyundai SUV from point A to point B and back again, all in one piece, with nerves still intact. And that just gets me out of my subdivision. The road to work still looms many ice and snow covered miles away.
That being said, New Year’s resolutions that don’t begin with snow; snow tires, snow shovels, snow removal, snow ploughs, snowflakes, snow angels, snow whatever, seem to have had little meaning for me this year.
My attention, however, did waver slightly from snow this week due, at least in part, to the fact I wrote the year in review for the Rimbey Review. How cool is that?
It’s difficult to capture a year in 78.8 inches of type, but, really, the written word is amazing, isn’t it!
And, as I read the previous editions of the Review, I found myself remembering and all the remembering conjured up all kinds of emotions that really had nothing to do with snow.
I remembered the 2013 New Year’s baby and the beautiful smile of the lovely young mom and how the dad looked all proud and happy and kind of shy.
And, I remembered sitting in town council and watching councillors for the hundredth time wrestle with the issue of the library.
And, once again, I heard the clock tick and watched their faces. Where were they going with this? I wondered. And I knew, as surely as I sat in the desk reserved for reporters such as my self, that beneath their banter and jokes, they were wrestling with the right decision, the best decision possible.
And when I saw the front page picture of Canada Day with the young girl clutching the familiar red and white flag, I was reminded of the crowd and the laughter and the underlying pride that seemed to permeate Pas Ka Poo Park.
Proud to be a Canadian? No one said it. No one had to. It was there, in the miniature flags and the giant birthday cake and the quiet dignity of the Legion’s colour party.
And then I read about how April was declared MS awareness month in Rimbey and, once again, I was taken back to the quiet courage of the people afflicted with the disease.
And, in my mind my pen is flying across my notebook as I struggle to write their stories, to bring to light their struggles and, through the written word, let the world know about the everyday heroes each and every one of them are.
And, then there was the election.
Once again, I feel the tension, the waiting, the anxiety. And, I remember as I watched the long lineups at the voting polls feeling something akin to pride as the people of Rimbey exercised their ‘freedom to vote.’
I finish typing in the last highlight and, much to my surprise, I find I have forgotten completely about the snow outside.
2013! It was a good year, I decide!
And I realize the opportunity to look back for a brief look at what was brought me smack dab to the reality that change is continual. And same old, same old, really exists only in our minds.
As I write this, I make my first resolution.
Don’t get in a rut, snow or otherwise, but if you do, get out quickly!