Tides at Sunrise: Thoughts for a New Year

I come here to remind myself that no matter what day or year it is, the challenges we face, or the numbers of times we have to pick ourselves up and keep going, the sun rises every day.

Much hope lies in the first moments of a new day. So too, in a new year. And after many dark days in 2020, we all cling to the hope and light this particular new year brings.

At Kure Beach, where I’m starting 2021, it’s rainy and overcast. The tide comes in and it goes out. I take a deep breath (something I no longer take for granted), and accept that this new year is sure to bring its own version of losses and triumphs, valleys and hills, low tides and high tides.

Standing here at the top of this shiny new year, overlooking our high expectations for a better trip around the sun, I can see the hard work ahead, the shadows of unknowns and unanswered questions.

Still, I choose to believe in brighter days. I decide to trust the process.

Trusting the Process

“We move forward with faith, to the hoped-for but unseen,” says Dr. Jill Biden in her prayer for the new year. That is the essence of trusting the process.

There’s a lot we want to forget about 2020. But let us never forget how we adapted, sacrificed, and grew in the process. Take those lessons with you into this new year.

When you acknowledge that we don’t have all of the answers, but move forward (not backward) anyway — that is trusting.

When you find yourself in the valley instead of the on mountain top and remember that there is always a new day, a new start — that is the process.

So, cheers, my friends, to 2021! May we keep the faith, face the unseen, and put in the work. And a year from now, may we look back and see some healing across our globe, progress in our country, and our own personal growth that came from trusting the process.

I love you. Keep going.

See you out there.

H//

**All photos taken by my Dad, Phil Baddour