Another year begins. With 364 days, it offers many ways to think about time. Group it into semesters for schooling purposes. Chunk it into months for project management. Parse it into weeks for blogging. Focus on one day at a time, for personal management. Measure hours, minutes and seconds ‘on task’, for cost control.
Another year begins. With four seasons, it offers us the familiar cycle that shapes our lives, as it has shaped the lives of all humans, in all parts of the planet. Of course, in some parts of Canada that shape may be a little lopsided: some seasons are mere passing fancies, more evident on the calendar than on the ground. Blink, and you may miss spring or fall in Alberta; conversely, winter endures for what seems like half the year in the Great White North. But never mind the imbalance: the year-in, year-out pattern of the cycle is all.
Another year begins. With multiple ways to exert ourselves — work and school; home and community; creation and maintenance; inspiration and drudgery — it offers us ample opportunities for accomplishment. With numerous activity options — indoor and outdoor; mental and physical; couch potato and Energizer Bunny® — it offers a varied terrain of rest and recreation alternatives. With diverse interfaces — strangers, acquaintances and Friends-and-Relations — it offers us connection possibilities to overwhelm the strongest extrovert, to tempt the most-resolute introvert.
Another year begins. Will it be a linear stretch of days, marching neatly one after the other, or a jumble of criss-crossing paths? Discrete chunks of time, or a continuous whole? The impossibly long span it is to the four-year-old, or the tiny fraction of a life it represents to the 90-year-old?
Another year begins. Will it be a bridge we build between our past and our future? A mountain we scale? An ocean we sail? A path we walk? A garden we plant? A jungle we clear?
Another year begins. Will it be music to our ears, or a discordant crash of noise? Will it be the sparkle of new beginnings, or the comfort of old traditions? Will it be obligation, or invitation?
Another year begins.
This post (#147) marks the second anniversary of this blog. My thanks to all readers and commenters.
You forgot golf and cruising, R&R (renovating and relaxing), but yes it is another year and that is better than the alternative.
Marv – OK, only you two would link ‘renovating’ and ‘relaxing’… I see a reality TV show in your future – extreme (house) makeovers!