2020 was a very difficult year for everyone. Our world was turned upside down. Last year I was hoping to take more photographs, to focus on my personal projects and perhaps turn at least a couple of them into a book. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit us, and for a long while even picking up the camera seemed completely irrelevant.
Though at the beginning of this year we are still in the middle of the whirlwind, there is hope on the horizon. It doesn't feel as hopeless as when the bad news shattered our world for the first time. With a little bit of patience we will be able to get back to some kind of normal in a few months time.
With that on my mind, I decided I am going to try again what I was hoping to achieve last year. For a start, I will try to take at least one photo a week. Photography as well as walking are very important to me. They are both an inseparable part of my life, an antidote to the pressures of everyday life, my day job and other commitments.
With the national lockdown in the first few months, it will be a little bit more tricky. But I never thought I had to travel far to see beauty. Therefore, I have no problem with following the rules, keeping local and safe for my sake as well as the others'.
So here it is to the New Year. A year of hope for better and brighter future for all of us. Hope that we will all get our freedom back, and will be able to fulfil what we wish for most.
I will yet again borrow words from a much wiser man, J. R. R. Tolkien. Those who are fans of The Lord of the Rings will know these words very well. Sam's speech in Two Towers is timeless. He is talking about Middle Earth, but he might as well be talking about life in general. It is impossible not to apply those words to our own lives and to the things that are happening around us. Hope is a small but a very powerful thing. And there is plenty of it in the words below.
