This year, more than most, I’ve been looking back in my photos to see where I was a year ago (or two, or five). On this day last year we were in Tignes, in the French Alps, for a stage of the Tour de France. We had been talking about the trip for years - our friend Dennis‘ wish for a milestone birthday. The whole trip was built around this one day. We splurged for VIP passes to the finish line of a tough mountain stage.
It was everything we had hoped, right up to the moment we saw the snowplow on the Jumbotron and heard the stage had been stopped - there would be no riders crossing the finish line.
Ugh. But there were silver linings, literal and figurative. The champagne was poured and drunk, the party continued, we began to tell the story of that crazy, unexpected day. We took the long way back to the condo, stopping for dinner at the restaurant we stumbled upon (luckily, because the rain was cold!). And after the rain, this view across the lake. The silver of the snow on the mountain, the last light sneaking through a break in the clouds. It smelled as delicious as it looked. And we had each other, and new shared memories, and laughter.
That day didn‘t unfold as anticipated. This year isn’t unfolding as anticipated. We keep needing to adjust our expectations, as whatever timelines we imagine are pushed out farther and farther. We seem to be taking the long way around.
So I am looking for silver linings, light peeking through breaks in the clouds, reflections of beauty, acts of kindness and new shared experiences that can bring us closer together. Won’t you join me, so that we have amazing stories to tell next year, and the year after, and far into the future?
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