‘Tis the season for retrospection and introspection.
This always seems to be the season where I look back on the year, and try to figure out where I’m going in the next year.
When I was younger - in my 20s, say - I would have “5 year plans”, and it felt good to be thinking about where I wanted to be going. The catch? Literally none, not one, of those 5-year plans worked out the way I thought they would. My job, having kids, getting married, getting divorced, moving away, moving back. None of it happened according to plan.
For a long time, this was terribly stressful to me - I wasn’t measuring up, I wasn’t sure I was going where I wanted to go. As I got older, I started to change the question - was I living the life I wanted to live? Am I prioritizing the way I want to?
So, today, I think about the future. I have dreams. But I’ve changed how I think about achieving them. Am I making the right moves? Not “Am I on schedule”.
Because at the end, you can only see so far.
Today’s image from a farm, long abandoned, on a road, long passed by, standing in a fog bank.
You Can Only See So Far - West Virginia