🚪 #wintersolstice #2020memories #doors . This time of year I find myself reflecting on the year that was by scrolling through my photos. Each photo, each moment ... a memory. This is from #parlimenthill in Ottawa & little did I know that this would be the last day I'd get to properly sightsee in the Capital. I moved to Ottawa in February with the intention of starting a new chapter. I was excited to be embarking on this new adventure & a new life. By the time I settled into my new place, transferred all my official documents etc. I really only really had one weekend to explore before lockdown happened in mid-March. I cannot say that the pandemic is the reason things did not work out for me in Ottawa, but it probably hastened something that would have happened eventually. The pandemic seems to have a way of exposing cracks & frailties. Those painful places we could otherwise ignore in ordinary times. . At first, I was devastated that I wasn't going to get the "new chapter" that I so longed for. It wasn't after a great deal of reflection & healing that I realised that my "new chapter" was just going to look different. Life had other plans for me. This little plot twist may have closed one door but certainly others have opened since then - only this time I'm armed with the wisdom I gained from this door's closing. It finally gave me the courage to leave a 20-year career that I spent most of my life building. I am now working towards something completely new & different. No small feat given that for much of my life, my career WAS my identity & who I was. So part of this process is getting to know the real me without all the trappings of something that doesn't fit anymore. . The winter solstice has always been a special time of year for me. It is a celebration of "light returning". Tonight - on the longest night of a long pandemic year - my solstice candles take on an extra special meaning ... . Light in the darkness ... Light returning 🕯️... ________ "This is the night when you can trust that any direction you go, you will be walking toward the dawn." — Jan Richardson . . . #ottawa #myottawa #ottcity #ottawaphotographer #exploreottawa #adventdoor #hopeoverfear (at Parliament Hill) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJEiD_yBjX4/?igshid=1csnhusjz0dls
