New Year and The Local Shrine

Hakusan Shrine, Kasugai

For the past few years I have been going to the local shrine at new year to photograph and build a body of work. Unsurprisingly this year was unlike previous ones. On the steps leading up to the shrine were signs informing visitors of social distancing and mask necessities, and 5 p.m. closures — reminders of the danger that 2020 posed to us all. 

Looking back at last year’s photos and trying to rekindle the excitement I had for 2020 now seems naive. I had a number of hiking trips planned, an annual trip to the U.K., a summer trip to Australia, as well as a winter photography trip to Hokkaido, all of which had to be abandoned.

Things that were taken for granted never happened. It was a troubling year for us all and one that many wish to see the back of. Things changed, but things always change. I’m stating the obvious when I say that predicting the future is futile, so all we can do is try and make today better than yesterday and move forward.

I consider myself an optimistic pessimist, happy to live this moment and plan for the future but fully aware that life is short and nothing goes according to plan. I find comfort in that, though. It’s motivating. Try and get it — whatever it is — done today.

Each shrine visit resets the compass and puts things back into perspective. It’s a marker, a tool that forces us to reflect on the past and discard unnecessary clutter, so that we can move forward. 

I have plans for 2021 but I doubt any of them will turn out as intended.

Have anything to say? Feel free to email me. Perhaps subscribe to Restless too?

One response to “New Year and The Local Shrine”

  1. […] back at my first post of 2021 has made me realise that nothing has changed. Everything then is as relevant now as it was last […]

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: