Today I am abuzz. Words chirp through my brain like a mocking bird in springtime. Today I could fill pages, if not volumes, with words, thoughts and ideas. Perhaps it's the weather. On this New Year's Eve day, Santa Barbara hovers on the cusp of fog and sun, and the beautiful, clear, sunny skies we've had for two months are threatening to depart. The largest fog bank I've seen in years is sitting in the middle of Santa Barbara's channel and could, at any moment, plunge us into gray occlusion.
All day the fog has been taunting us, stealthily seeping into the city, then drifting out again. This morning, as I hiked on a path in the foothills, I was caught between two forces: the sun warming my back and the fog licking my heels. Within this dynamic, I found something stimulating and electric. This day of December 31, 2011, has been like our weather, teetering on the edge of two forces: the future arriving and the departing past.
Driving through town, images flooded my view. So many of them seemed symbolic of this particular moment in time.
On a street I travel often, I passed an entrance I'd never noticed before; an arched gateway in a rock wall; it was luminous and welcoming. Later, from a perch in the upper Riviera, I gazed across the channel to see only the tallest tips of Santa Cruz Island peeking above the pillowed fog.
From my view of the channel, Stearn's Warf was barely recognizable in the mist, and as I watched it, I thought about the mystery of our future. The, as yet, unknown 2012. In this moment of transition, at the beginning of a New Year, invariably we're filled with a sense of renewal. And so with great hope percolating within me, I will share an image I took at Rincon Beach on the day after Thanksgiving, and with it, I want to wish you all a wealth of perfect waves cresting in your New Year, along with happiness, health and realized dreams.
Happy New Year! ~ Aneet
** See you again on the 20th of January.
