2013 Behind me.....2014 Before me.

I am sitting here at my desk looking at a fresh, new calendar for the year 2014.  There’s not a mark on it…but I’m about to start filling the squares with appointments for doctors, dentists, story interviews and get-togethers that are already scheduled and planned.   As I flip through the pages of the retired and marked up 2013 calendar, notes jump out to remind me about the past twelve months of my life.

Looking at these unmarked pages it occurs to me we all start the New Year with some things in common………

For starters, we all have the human body to deal with.  We have all felt the effects of inflation, but even at today’s prices its elements are only worth about $4.70.   Granted, the condition of this vehicle can vary greatly from person to person.  Still…it’s something we all have.

Assuming you have an average human brain, it is processing 400 billion bits of information a second.   At best you’re only aware of about 2,000 of those bits, and your sense of “reality” is filtered through your sense organs.  Think of your brain as a very sophisticated computer….garbage in, garbage out.    

If we are fortunate enough to live, by the end of 2014 we will each have been given 365 days experienced in split second increments. It’s up to use to determine what we do with those seconds, hours, days, weeks and months.  An organized friend of mine says she reaps all kinds of benefits by taking just two minutes a day to be grateful for this life she has been given.  It must be time well invested, because she gets more done in one day than most of us do in a week.

Another friend insists time somehow expands when she fills some of those calendar squares with regular visits to shut-ins, or plans time to sit with a friend who is sick.  Maybe this could be the year you work your plan to visit a nursing home to read to someone who can no longer do that for himself. Perhaps you could fill just one of those calendar squares each month with a scheduled time to reach out and touch someone else’s life.    

Flipping through the pages of this dog-eared date book I know too many of those days were unproductive because I allowed myself to be bored in a world that offers much, but needs even more help.  This used calendar stares back and holds me accountable in a very definite way.

So, here I sit, looking at this colorful new calendar just waiting to be filled with the day to day events that will become the next year of my life.   Even though life is unpredictable and we may not be able to control the number of days we have to fill, we can control how we fill the days we are given.

I’m not suggesting that the year 2014 should be the year you prepare yourself for sainthood, I know I sure won’t.   What I am suggesting is that we all have certain things in common, and if we take control over those we can do uncommon things.  Fill in some of those dates with things that will bring happy memories as you sit and look at 2014 from the other end of the calendar.

                                                      Happy New Year   

                                                           Life is Good