There is a new year proverb of the Japanese:
一年の計は元旦にあり- Ichinen no kei wa gantan ni ari
Freely translation is – “New Year’s day is the key of the year! ”
The proverb’s direct meaning is that The year’s plan is made on New Year’s Day.
I usually make a plan spontaneously, but transforming it into action may sometimes take time as I get older with wise decisions.
I like free translation for New Year’s Day.
I have been practicing my new year day’s ritual to get up and see New Year’s sunrise for about 30 years. I love this ritual to lift my spirits and prepare to start the new year.
It’s has been colder winter for Santa Monica.
At 5 am on new years’ morning, my brain said, let’s stay in the Christmas gift of organic flannel sheets and stay warm.
My heart whispered, let’s see new year’s sunrise!
Let’s go!
And… I went!
2022 new year’s sunrise in Santa Monica was 7:58 am.
I was with my husband, Eric, elderly dog daughter Lumi and her daughter Happy, and dog son of Kai.
We also had our friends and their ten-year-old son, who are all first time, come to join us to see new year sunrise. They are all Kai’s friends.
We hiked up and arrived at the spot at 6:15 am.
We waited for the new year’s sunrise to show up.
The sky transformed artistically, so many different scenes touched my emotions deeply.
But at the same time, like last year’s new year’s morning, it was very windy and also colder, and my hand started to feel like freezing with the uncomfortableness.
Our friend’s son found a very very thin paper moon (2 % of the waning crescent moon) in the sky, but we could not see it for a while.
We were saying, where is it?
Are you sure it is a moon?
Finally, we – adults, saw the thread-thin moon as we focused our hearts.
And I forgot how my hands were feeling painfully cold.
The child’s eyes captured a tiny slite moon, and we were grateful that we could see it too because of him.
Then, I realized I forgot to connect my cell phone to charge as sky was getting blighter.
I thought there were no new year’s sunrise photos this year, but the friends had iPhone 13 and sent me hight quality photos, which were no comparison to my iPhone 8.
Look at these gorgeous new year sunrise photos:
Seeing another new year’s sunrise, I felt deeply connected to the sun and nature with an appreciation for being a human being.
I felt happiness simply without material or money.
The universe (God, Higher power) planned for me to sleep without changing my cell phone on new years eve night. Ha, ha, ha!
I thought of another proverb, 塞翁が馬 -Saiyou ga uma.
Freely translation is “Fortune is unpredictable and changeable.”
It will be my 2022 motto.
2022 with gratitude, hope, and love!
Love, Sanae❤️
