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TOTW: Reflection

In this part of the world, mid-March is the time for planting. Mid-February, then, is the time for reflecting. Reflecting on what you planted last year, reflecting on how things look today, reflecting on how you might do things differently this time round. Reflecting on whether to carry on at all, or to tear it up and burn it down.

Now is the time to hold up the mirror and examine ourselves, our perspectives, our experiences. A time to redress our actions, our projects, the way we've been living.

This is all easier said than done. The vulnerability needed for peeling back one's character armour, for deconstructing our carefully put together identities, is not the kind of thing the discourse encourages. Reflection requires a degree of intention that's hard to muster in this world.

In my better moments, reflecting conjures up sympathy, empathy. I see a picture of me raising a hand to a friend and seeing the same in response. Other times it's focused on failures, regrets. Things I should have said when I had the chance, places I should have gone.

What will you be reflecting on, anews commenters? Will it be a lonely process, one that demands solitude, or one that welcomes friends, strangers, anons on the internet? Where will these reflections, thoughts and conversations take us? Will it be a wasted week, or a profound new beginning?