In his early play, Love’s Labour’s Lost, William Shakespeare gave us this thought on time. In the opening act, Lord Berowne speaking to King Navarre declares, “At Christmas, I no more desire a rose, than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth; but like of each thing that in season grows.” Such is one of only three references to Christmas in all of Shakespeare’s works. It is interesting that he chooses to tie Christmas to time. Centuries after Shakespeare but almost two centuries before today, Charles Dickens also connected Christmas with time by haunting Ebenezer Scrooge with ghosts of past, present, and yet to come. In fact, we connect Christmas with time today as well with song lyrics like “Christmas time is here”, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”, and “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time”. What makes this time of year one of reflection?

Is it simply the turning of the year? Is it the all too recent passing of the Winter Solstice? The longest night is over, and we look forward and back as our daily light returns? Is it the holidays we celebrate that spark giving, gratitude, and hope be it Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yuletide, or Christmas? Well let’s get back to Shakespeare. Lord Berowne specifically reflects that he doesn’t wish for things outside of their season be it roses at Christmas or snow in May, though here in Minnesota, snow in May is entirely possible. Ebenezer Scrooge, on the other hand, learns to keep “the spirit of Christmas” all the year. However, both are expressions of living in the moment- being present in the here and now.

Each year brings memorable and eventful happenings and changes. How each of us remembers the year just passed may look very different, but for some of us, events in the world or in their lives this year might have felt surreal – outside of time if you will. A bit like lucid dreaming or living in the twilight zone. Speaking of twilight, I recall as a teenager helping a family member retrieve his deer toward evening during hunting season. He had forgotten his field dressing tools, so the sun was down over the horizon before we started back on foot out of the woods with the deer in tow. He had placed glow sticks as markers on his way in, but they had faded in the time it had taken for him to field dress the deer. It didn’t help that the forest terrain had both thick branches overhead and steeply folded hills underfoot. When twilight fell, the whole world turned gray. The sky was overcast, and the moon had yet to rise. Everything looked almost exactly the same in every direction. We were lost. I can still remember feeling panic as I found myself in a situation so outside of my control. Thankfully, a break in the clouds while we stood in a clearing let me see the stars enough to know which way was north. With calm and direction, we found the road literally over the next hill – we had been going parallel to it.

And here we all are at the end of another year. Our problems and the world’s problems unfortunately won’t magically disappear with the turning of the year. Our own bad habits won’t magically change either. But we often only need a little bit of light in a troubling situation to give us confidence and purpose, even if we can only see one step of the way at a time. Making changes can be hard though, especially when they are thrust upon us, so let us consider one more quote of Shakespeare. Ophelia, in the play Hamlet, said, “We know what we are but know not what we may be.” Here we are indeed, but that doesn’t mean we must or will remain as we are or have been. I have yet to read a novel that ended the story on page 8 and all the rest was commentary. Everyone’s story goes on from this point of the plot, and time like the turning of a page will bring each of us to new challenges and new adventures. From all of us at the library, we wish you a happy new year, and we hope to see you soon!

The library will close early on Wednesday, December 31 at 5 p.m. and will be closed on Thursday, January 1 for the New Year’s Day holiday.

The library is located at 17 N. Broadway and is open to the public Monday-Thursday from 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. and Friday-Saturday from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.