2016 new year, old values

2016 new year. This is neither something new nor a new concept to think about on January the 5th when, one day before the big and obvious revelation of the Epiphany, I stop and think. In realty I’ve started thinking more than five days ago. The end of the year and then the new beginning has always created problems to me. The very popular question “what are you going to do on New Year’s eve?” has always upset me not for worldly reasons. On the contrary. My problem is the ruthless and relentless mark of passing time. Behind this banal as archaic ritual of “-3, 2, 1 … booom” a world of anxiety has been hidden. Am I afraid to miss the moment? Is it a matter of performance? not exactly.

“Anxiety is always a gap generated between the way things are and the way we think they should be; It is something that is in between the real and the unreal“- Charlotte Joko Beck.

2016 new year, old thoughts

And so a new year begins. I have to admit I’m one of those people who reads her horoscopes hoping my star-sign will be among the Top Three lucky ones, even though I tell myself   “horoscopes are not true, but I believe it” because I use the excuse that  I find it a way of trying to be a better version of myself!. Good self-esteem is what each of us should aspire to. My zodiac sign, Pisces, is on the top of the list, as always. It’s among the most thoughtful, emotional, creative, but never happy star signs. And so after 5 days from the beginning of 2016 I’m looking for a bit of wisdom and somehow I’ve found it.

“Wisdom, as yoga practice, helps to understand that life is a journey and that the real meaning is not in the destination but the journey itself“.

Wisdom means seeing things as they really are. Their essence, beyond the veil covering our contradictions. And so, looking around, I caught a rare awareness.

During the 2016 new year the real values keep on being the same

Some may say that they already knew, others assume that this is as banal as Pandora at Christmas, but I’ll tell you that it took me a lifetime to understand it until now. Anything we pretend to wish for the new year is nothing compared to the real need for affection. Disproportionate and incomprehensible. Immense and irrepressible. And there will never be either enough glitter in the world to cope with it nor glossy distractions.

What you did on 2015 \ 2016 New Year’s eve, what you are going to wear for the next 365 days of the year will never be so important as the satisfaction of that primary need of love. Only you know where your happy place is and go back there whenever you feel lost. The value of time, the time you spend with the people of your life, it is the only time that will never be wasted. Far from worldliness, away from socials that sometimes seem to steal our soul and with those little details that make your life, your life.

Ph. Elisa Rinaldi fotografa