To a Bright New Year! [With Photos]

Happy 2025!

May this new year be bright, peaceful, and happy.

I’m excited for it.

Where I live, the weather’s been spectacularly clear and bright. The air’s been crisp, the skies laser blue, and the sunsets in the past days have been an explosion of pastel tones. That must be a good omen!

Once again, the beauty of nature in the alps enthrals me. I’ve looked at these mountains many, many times for many, many years of my life. And yet, the staring at clouds and gasping at the light just never stops.

Awe is a constant companion here. 

I want to share it with you in this email - with photos and a story.

My Intention for 2025: Resurrecting an Old Dream

Over the past weeks, I’ve rediscovered how much I enjoy photography; I went to school for it in the hopes of becoming a documentary photographer some years ago. Writing and taking photos for a living was the dream for many years until reality bit. I just didn’t see a way of making it happen, especially with the realities of the media industry.

I put away my camera and any creative aspirations for eight years.

Recently, I’ve been feeling out how I could give new life to this old dream - on my own terms and with more creative freedom. Newsletters - places like Substack, among others - feel like a good avenue to make the dream of writing and photographing, art and creativity for a living possible. And that’s what I intend to do in 2025.

It’s been a freeing and energizing decision. If you’ve been here for all the iterations of my writing on the internet, I’m grateful you’ve come along for the entirety of the journey - or even parts of it.

Let’s see where the next chapter takes us!

Now onto photos and a story.

A Bright Nature Walk to Bookend the Years

On the last day of the year, I took a boat across the big mountain lake in my area. It’s an eye-searingly beautiful place at any time of the year. Under a canopy of fall clouds it looks brooding, ominous. When the sunlight hits its waves in summer, it glows in a luminous emerald green, so bright you have to pinch yourself to arrive in its otherworldly reality.

This time, it was foggy, mysterious, and clear as glass.

When we pushed off from the shore, we headed into a wall of fog. A sliver of sunlight led the way, like a promise.

The fog was so thick, I doubted we would get to see anything. Until…until - boom! Light, colors, reflection, brightness! It all happened at the same time.

Everything was so clear and bright, it was unreal. Even though I’ve seen this vista many times in my life, I was filled with a deep sense of awe - yet, again.

I suppose our encounters with the sublime will do that. True beauty, however you may define it for yourself, never gets old.

Coming here is a new end of the year ritual for me.

The first time, I begrudgingly went the year before the pandemic. I had a gift certificate for a boat trip and it needed to be used up by the end of that year. The lake is a place locals avoid most of the time - it just gets too busy with visitors. Which, as I’ve come to find out, is a terrible mistake. I really enjoyed that year-end trip all those years ago. It was magical and introspective, rejuvenating and cleansing.

This time, I had a friend from high school join me. We’ve now known each other for more years in life now than we haven’t. Funny thing, when you get to your mid-30s and your friendships turn out that way.

We spent the day walking around the peninsula the boat took us to. Fortunately, few people were exploring where we were, so we got this wonderful, profoundly touching experience in nature mostly to ourselves.

Standing at the lake shore, watching the sunlight dance on the water was the perfect place to recapture and let go of the year. We shared our lessons and regrets, our wins and losses, and our hopes and aspirations for the year ahead.

It was a beautiful moment.

Looking just slightly to the right of our spot, we saw an entirely different scene. Not bright, but dark, not shiny, but somber. The place below only gets sun during eight out of 12 months of the year. Otherwise, like right now, it’s cast in long and cold shadows. It’s so dark, it looks like a black and white photograph come to life.

A reminder, maybe, that while the new year might have its dark days, they will rarely stay for as long as in this dark, frosty corner of the earth.

It also goes to show that much in life depends on perspective. From wherever you stand, you can see brightness as much as the dark, happiness as much as pain.

I’ll leave you with my favorite shot from this adventure and a wish for 2025.

May the clouds in your year be only as slight and transient as the fog in the photo.

May your 2025 be bright and full of rainbows.

May the new year bring you joy, light, and awe in abundant measures.

Happy 2025,

Johanna

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