Heroes Not Zombies

January gets its name from Janus, the God who faces both ways, forwards and backwards, the God of gateways and doorways.

This is a good month to take the time to stand on the threshold of the new year, look back, and look forward, and see both which paths you’ve been following in 2014, and which new ones you might follow in 2015.

This door I photographed has clearly been doing its job for many years, and I love the way it has gradually evolved and changed. Clearly some of the panels needed to be replaced, but this is still the same door in the same doorway. It reminds me of the old philosophical question about a wooden boat which needs to have some of its planks replaced every year. By the time not a single plank from the original construction remains, can you still say it is the same boat?

So this month, is your month. And this is a month of the year you will have visited many times before (for me, this is the 60th January I’ve experienced), but every year brings a new January.

Every January, you think back to remember the moments from the year gone by, and you start to think ahead, to make plans for the year to come.

Every January, as you pass through your doorway, you’ll be crafting new elements onto the ones which were already there.

Maybe its an idea to take your time this month, allow yourself to reflect on 2014, and take a few moments to imagine how 2015 might be, imagine how you would like it be.

And amongst all this reflecting and planning, recognise that this a moment of passage, that January is a month for you to step, seemlessly, and deliberately, from last year into this one.