Calendar Girl

For many of the events in my life, I’ve made the transition to a digital calendar that I keep on my phone.  But I still like to write things down on a paper calendar, which is both satisfying to use and a good way to mark events in my memory.  As I have done for years, in December I purchased a new calendar to hang on the kitchen bulletin board at home.  When I made that purchase, I also choose a desk calendar for my office.

During Winter Break, I fill both calendars with what I know of the year’s coming events.  I start with the key events in January and before I know it, the days and weeks of the remaining months have an item or two, often more.  Before the sun has even risen on first day of January, I’ve already filled in the end of one school year and the tentative start of another.

These days, time often feels like it passes just that fast.  Today is the 9th and as of tomorrow the new year’s first month will already be in double digit days.  By then it feels like February is pushing its way forward.  This is an over-exaggeration, of course, but it also contains of shard of truth.  Time passes quickly and it’s far too easy for me to plan for the future then it is to pause and embrace and enjoy the present while it is here to be had.

Planning ahead is nice and heaven knows I’m a girl who loves a list of things to be done.  But there is power in being alive and here for the moment happening right now.  I spent so much of 2018 bracing for and fretting about the change of JT heading off to school that I needed a daily reminder to enjoy the here and now and let the future take care of itself.

That’s a message that still resonates with me and in 2019 I am resolved to treat the future as something to anticipate, not fear.  And I remind myself that it is is the here and now in which life must be lived and relished.  So my calendar and I are here and ready to embrace each day that 2019 brings.