Happy New Year!
January 1, 2020
Warm Greetings and a Very Happy New Year,
Together with Szilvia, I took a ‘New Year’s Day’ walk this afternoon along the cliff overlooking the Pacific here in Capitola. The surf was ‘up’ this afternoon with a Northwesterly swell that was not for the faint of heart. Indeed, there were warnings in the papers to stay out of the water today. Well, that is like honey to a bee for the experienced surfer. And there they were, many very skilled women and men of all ages, skilled surfers all, catching and riding some very beautifully formed big waves. The pounding of the surf as it crashed upon the shore added to the power of the moment. And then there was a stillness…the stillness that is there between the ‘sets’ – for waves move in ‘sets’. The waves arrive and the power is unleashed, the surfers catch and ride for as long as it lasts…until again all is still. The contrast is in itself also powerful to experience. If you didn’t know it, you would think it was all over, but wait a while and then the swell starts again – ever so gently and ever so powerfully. If you didn’t know, you might have gone home, but if you did know, well, then you were patient – you wait, you thread water and you look for the signs.
Looking out into the future I lay claim to no crystal ball. I see a blank canvas upon which to paint – to live. Like many of us, I have imagined what the coming year may bring. Indeed, I am even planning for certain events on both coasts. But truth be told, plans are not defined outcomes – they are a guidepost and a starting point that indicates the direction we have determined to walk. Like all good plans, they are not fixed – they will need to be malleable. That is not to say that we will be ‘will-of-the-wisps’, jumping from here to there as if blown about in the wind. We have determined our direction, our ‘red thread’. We have the ‘goal’ before our eyes. It is in the process, the journey, of achieving this goal that we may need to be flexible. It is in the journey that we will on occasion catch that wave that propels us forward as much as when in the calm between the sets it can appear to the uninformed that we are going nowhere. The experienced surfer knows to wait for the next set. Knowledge and experience can guide us.
And so it is with our life. We plan, we catch a wave, we live in the quiet, we wonder, we question – but most of all, we live. It has been, and continues to be, my privilege to walk beside you as your financial advisor as you live. I look forward to continuing our journey together into the next decade…the ‘20s.
May the coming year bring you and your loved ones fulfillment.
Bernard
