A bridge to a New Year

Our family took a quick trip to Lethbridge this week to see Lee's parents. One afternoon, we drove to Indian Battle Park at the bottom of the coulees and walked the dog to the train trestle bridge, also known as the High Level Bridge. It's the longest (1.62 km or 5,327 ft 7 1/2 inches -- just over a mile) and highest (95.7 m or 314 ft) trestle bridge in the world. It was a perfect blue sky winter day, and I must admit, it's a pretty impressive structure.

It was a wonderful sunny walk in the calm of the coulees on a rather blustery day, and it got me thinking about how much I appreciate bridges in my life. Not just the ones that get me over a river or traffic, but that help me to reach beyond myself to others.

And here we sit, at the end of an old year, ready to cross into a new one. Will we build bridges of justice and truth, or allow the fears and anxieties of 2016 to keep us unbalanced into the future?

I vote for building bridges of honesty and peace, with strong foundations of tenderness toward those who feel misunderstood and marginalized. If the Canadian Pacific Railway could build a bridge like this one in 1909, I'm sure we can create the kinds of bridges we need for a better world. 

 Going beyond ourselves to reach out to others and working together is the best and only way. So let's do what little we can to bridge the gaps between ourselves, our communities, our countries and our environment for the sake of the world to come in 2017.

I'm a little early, but have a Happy New Year, everyone!