Some end of the year thoughts: on small bright joys in a bleak dark world…

12.50 pm

28.12.23

Glasgow Botanic Gardens/ Kelvin Walkway:

There I was, trudging beside a very full river Kelvin, the day wet, cold, dreary and windy … steeped in that post-Festive, pre- ‘let’s get stuck into another year’ glumness besetting many of us in this liminal time of ending/beginning.

I couldn’t even decide whether the tiny hint of emerging snowdrops was real – or a figment of my hopeful imagination.

And then I saw them:

Photo: Anne Whitaker

In total, vivid contrast to the drabness and grimness around me, tucked into wet, dank gaps in the wall which runs all the way along the path opposite the river, were those bright wee fellows: the Park Penguins, all decked out for the festive season, bringing cheer to the dreary city.

I hope this study in contrasts cheers you up too! It’s certainly had that effect on me. I have no idea who has been creating and placing those delightful little figures, their themes changing with the seasons, for some time now.

Whoever you are, thank you so much!

Photo: Anne Whitaker

We are living through very dark and painful times as a world community at present, when it’s hard to feel positive and optimistic about being human, as we are confronted yet again with the grim reality that millennia of slaughter do not seem to have taught us much about how to co-exist peacefully on this fragile planet.

So – we really need to try to be as positive and constructive as we can be in our own individual lives, in the process bringing some light into the lives of our fellow citizens both known and unknown – as this Penguin artist has done.

We also need to keep savouring moments of lightness, humour and sudden unexpected small pleasures: it has made me happy to see, enjoy and share those Park Penguins with their jaunty message of festive cheer.

Carpe Diem!

300 words copyright Anne Whitaker2023