We are born under the shadow and shelter of our parents. If we are fortunate, it comes with wide, warm and protective boughs. As adults, we step out from under that vast, verdant shade and follow the sun, creating our independent shadow. Hopefully, one day, it, too, will shelter and protect our own loved ones.

 That transition, though, can be a strange and gray one. Some of us continue to cower under the shadow of childhood long into old age, carrying resentments, fears and even vengeance. Aging happily takes courage, confidence and the ability to stand alone even if we can’t stand at all.  

 So, as we all move forward towards the uncertainty of 2017, may we be brave, bold and brazen in the face of what lies ahead and let go of what was. We are always just shy of the shadow of things to come and it can be scary.  But time is a well-worn road that many before us have already walked:

 We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

–Buddha

 Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

–Abraham Lincoln

 The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

–Michelangelo

 This life is but a walking shadow; a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

–Shakespeare

 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff protect me.

–Psalm 23