Any Old Day
January is a slowdown for most of us after busy & fun times during
the holidays.
We are so busy at the end of the year we have to force ourselves to
slow down
to enjoy.
Don't you sometimes get so caught up in the holidays that you don't
realize that
maybe you're doing things more because everyone else is? Christmas
cards are
an excellent example...would you really write that many cards if you
didn't feel
you're "supposed to"? Sending cards, wrapping gifts, seeing family,
it's all
wonderful, but we should do it anyway, not just because it's the holidays...
Here's what the poet W. H. Auden says in "Narrator":
"Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree...
the Christmas feast is
already a fading memory... There are bills to be paid, machines
to be kept in
repair, irregular verbs to learn, the time being to redeem from insignificance..."
We need to change our orientation. Instead of looking at January
as a
slowdown, why don't you send a card to someone just because you want
to...no
holiday prodding you. Why not give a gift to someone when they
least expect it,
instead of just during the giving time... How about stopping
by an old friend on a
quiet, cloudy day...it might just be sunny to that person...
January, nor any other month, has to be redeemed from insignificance...Make
"any old day" a special one.
Jim Holcombe
Marion, IA