By Jennifer Williams, Contributor, US Daily Review.
January 2 – the day you wake up and realize that you need a new calendar. There is nothing terribly special about this forgotten day. It has the unfortunate placement as “the day after” THE day. At least December 26 has Boxing Day as a designation. But January 2 – nothing but realization that another year has begun. We thumb through that new calendar and start noting dates – birthdays, anniversaries, special occasions, conferences, vacations, when taxes are due. It’s nice to flip through a clean, bright calendar that has no scratched-off events, no pages full of erasure marks from moving around various engagements, no jotted down phone numbers or momentary reminders. Yes, I still carry a small paper calendar with me. Most of my appointments end up on my Crackberry but I still like the tactile feel of pen or pencil to paper.
Do you still have a wall calendar in your office or a monthly calendar on your wall? Do you look through it? There is a school calendar on the fridge – all 2011 dates need to be transferred to the new calendar, save for the last day of school. I live where there is snow and when we run out of snow days (calamity days, as they are called), then days must be made up at the end of the year. The calendar voted on for this school year has no week-long Easter break – one of the bugaboos about it. School events will be added to the calendar as we go. Eventually, summer vacation will appear. One day after the next – but nothing for January 2. It is an orphan – 364 other days seemingly have more significance than January 2. But this is a day.
We may be more reflective today about the coming year because we do finally take a look at the calendar. We may jot down a goal or two or one of those “resolutions” that we earnestly do want to keep. We note that there might be a sales goal, an exercise or dietary goal, a financial goal each month or for the year. We carry those goals from month to month, hoping for measured progress. January seems to be the month to be become adjusted to the reality of a new year and goals that were not met from the previous year. You are not alone in this circumspective process. We dial back our commitments, perhaps attempt for something more modest and then realize, in our heart of hearts, we are who we were created to be with all our quirks to overcommit, overpromise and overdo to ourselves. We are somehow able to disappoint ourselves but we do not want to disappoint others. January 2 gives us one more day to give our upcoming goals some thought and adjustment before starting down the seemingly irreversible and impossible path toward completion.
So on this day, January 2, go buy a new calendar, if you have not done so. Look at the fresh start, the clean pages, the possibilities that a new beginning brings. Perhaps do not clutter them up right away with meetings, commitments, parties and the like. Give it time. Enjoy the serenity of a clean slate, a fresh start, a new year. Remember, there’s always January 3.
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