January first I got up at 7:00am and headed out to Sunset Bay (one of the beaches that feels like home) and set off on a three mile hike. It was cold and still with the only sound being the waves that were getting increasingly larger as the tide came in.
For those of you who haven't experienced southern Oregon coast beaches, hikes can go from tide pools and sand to dirt and towering trees in just a few steps. While in the middle of a forest surrounded by trees and bushes there is the constant crash of waves and smell of salty air intertwined with the crisp scent of pine needles and leaves. The freshness of these two worlds – the sea and the trees – coming together is unique and breathtaking and was the absolute best start to the new year I could have asked for.
I'm not one for New Year's resolutions because they don't feel like tangible goals that I can reach. What I tried this year was to go out and set up a new perspective for myself in hopes of making changes that I feel I need in 2016. These changes don't have an anticipated outcome - I'm not trying to lose a few pounds a month or make a certain amount of dollars a day. What I'm trying to do is find ways to feel the way I did January 1st, 2016.
I felt awake and present and at peace. And I walked. I walked through sand and dirt and mud and over frozen puddles and between moss covered rocks and small pools that form with the changing tides and across logs and to the edges of sea cliffs, daring the wind to shove me. I just walked through whatever was in front of me on the trails I have come to know and enjoyed the changes that came on this short hike.
I loved the newness of being out that early and the rapidly changing terrain that my coast brings. I didn't shirk from the newness and the change, though, and that's what I came away from my morning-in-nature with. I just kept walking. I didn't wait for the day to grow older so the ground wasn't slick and no part of me felt displeased that the sunlight was just a little more gold than it is in the afternoon.
That's how I plan to approach the new year. Not with my typical attitude of “What I'm doing is working” or “Resolutions aren't realistic,” but rather with a new perspective. One that tells me accepting change is okay. One that highlights the beauty of new experiences. I've needed a better approach to the challenges life brings regardless of the year for some time now, and I've found it.
A new ideology is not easy. None of this seems like a piece of cake from where I'm standing now, but it feels worth working for.
2015 was a wonderful year. It was highs and lows, heartbreaking and heartwarming, a million emotions along every spectrum there is and I am so grateful for what it taught me.
2016 is a new year with as much potential as the rest of my life. Here's to hoping rather than waiting for it to bring me lessons, I can keep walking through the change and find them for myself.
