I am obsessed with Microsoft Sticky Notes. In fact, my desktop is so littered, I can barely see my icons. Sticky notes have replaced the messier paper version that organized the daily mess of my life; without them, insanity and chaos reign! Each sticky note is personalized with a unique color. My general “To Do” list is green, the note for my copywriting business is purple, the home repair list is blue, and my New Year’s Resolution note, I decided, would be yellow. I didn’t have any resolutions for the New Year as yet, but my plan was to be particularly selective this year. There would be no “Lose weight”, or “Eat less chocolate “, and certainly no “Drink less wine” namby-pamby stuff on my list this time around. No-no, this year, the only entries worthy of New Year’s Resolution status would be important personal goals; y’know, like running a marathon or climbing Everest. Typically, I arrive at my New Year’s Resolution (s) on Christmas Day, because, to be honest, I am too busy to come up with any ideas sooner than that. This year was no exception.
Christmas Day, 2013 was brilliantly sunny, and a very cold thirty-six degrees in Mooresville, North Carolina where my husband, daughter, and I were visiting Mom and Dad for the holiday. Gifts had been opened, breakfast had been consumed, and everyone had gone lazily off to that comfortable place we all go on Christmas prior to the preparation of the big evening meal. The house was cozy, and a fire rose merrily in the grate. My daughter was busy video conferencing her friends about her Christmas loot, my husband was shopping online for Christmas specials, and the dogs were four paws up. Mom and Dad, grateful, I’m sure, that we were all occupied had probably gone off to rest, and since I was not at home, and work, laundry or other chores did not beckon, I was free. This seemed nothing short of sheer luxury to me, and was the perfect opportunity for some serious me time.
Thirty-six degrees was a bit cold for my Florida blood, but I went for a run anyway. The golf course was closed for the day, and the opportunity to commune with Mother Nature in such a beautiful setting rather than running on the road was too good to pass up. There was no one in sight. As I ran up and down the hilly cart path, terrain I was quite unused to, I began to ache fore (shins) and aft (Achilles). It had been a good day. So far, I had managed to do absolutely nothing, and since I don’t consider baking or cooking anything other than a labor of love, that didn’t count. My thoughts, when I run, tend to either, randomly gel and develop into something I can write about, or gel and are dispensed to the trash bin icon in my mind. The faster and further I ran, the more I enjoyed my me time, so it was only natural that today, as I reveled in my twenty-four hour respite from everyday life, I would eventually begin to wonder why such a gift only came once a year. Why is Christmas Day the only day of the year that I have no chores, no errands, nowhere to be, and nothing on my to-do list? In other words, why does this very special day that allows me to think and focus clearly for more than a thirty second time span only come once a year? This seemed downright egregious to me.
This concept continued to puzzle, and eventually I came to the conclusion, somewhere around the third mile that something needed to be done. I trotted along frantically attempting to warm my hands one at a time in my vest pockets, thinking furiously. No disrespect to Jesus intended. I know what Christmas is really about and who was born on that day, but something really needed to give regarding the lack of me time in my life. Things were at a desperate impasse. You know the situation is bad when you are so busy, you become seriously annoyed when you have to break to use the bathroom. I needed more time for writing, more time to take care of pressing personal errands, like getting a haircut, time to go to an occasional movie with a girlfriend, and even though I don’t wash my car every weekend, I’m not a guy after all (!!!), I would like to clean it occasionally if only to avoid that inevitable day when someone writes, “Wash me!” on the trunk. Sigh . . . ., and well, to tell the truth, I would give just about anything for an occasional pedicure.
So, there you have it. My New Year’s Resolution will be to celebrate Christmas Day aka Me Time more than once a year. In 2014, I plan to throw in a couple more of these special personal holidays into the mix, and while I might not be celebrating Jesus’s birthday and I won’t be climbing Mount Everest (You didn’t think I was serious, did you?), I can assure you that if those days provide enough time for a pedicure, there will be quite a bit of thanking the Lord going on!
Happy New Year!