“Is that you?”
It is me.
The voice in the other end, distant, flat and slightly rasping.
I have a small suitcase in my left hand and my purse in my right. I am standing at the end of the road, behind me the celebration of the end of something old and the beginning of something new are exploding in colors, shapes and loud sounds. Fireworks. Humans tend to mark the transit of one year to another in a grandiose way. How many millions are being shot up in the night sky while we drink champagne, cheers and make promises to lose weight, quit smoking and so on for the new year wich we never keep?
I don`t blame them. I do it myself. Only this time, exactly one year ago, I made one more promise.
I look down on my suitcase. It is much smaller than my last weigh in.
Did I do enough? Was it enough?
For me, past time are like a mirror. And as I take a look in it, holding my luggage, clenching it in my hands; I can see it

… the landscape,
the valleys and the hills
which my path went through
on my life journey
– it seems divergent
as I take a peek back

And all that once was majestic
– boulders and forest –
are long gone
Only leaving an echo
of what once were

… though maybe it’s not absent
but rather the radiance
from my own beating heart
of all that I met on my
journey through life
who really made a difference

The weigh in has ended. My suitcase is lighter. Free of unnecessary burdens. I breathe. A sigh of relief. I believe I kept my promise.

“Is that you?”
Yes, it is me.
The intercom buzzes and a click can be heard as the door opens and I walk through the door to the new year with a lighter suitcase and the fireworks still saluting the new things to come.

© Sirenia 2018

New Year, Oslo Operahouse Norway

Image borrowed from Antepeskort