Must be that time of year...

 

Here we are in the first week of November.  We will be turning back the clocks in just a couple of days.  Here we go again….  For those of us in snow country, we enter these days with a bit of annual trepidation.  It doesn’t help this year that the two Farmers' Almanacs offer different predictions about how hard the winter will be. But – hearty stock – we do take pride in surviving the winds of autumn followed by the snow and ice fest to come. We talk about it a lot. Our weather becomes a part of who we are in these parts. We go into a sort of survival mode and are proud of it. I also like to remember winters of years past as well.  The winters seem lighter somehow -- or maybe I am just taller.  No, actually – that cannot be it. I am getting shorter. Relate to that?

Anyway – come the end of October or the beginning of November each year, being the creature of habit that I am, I start thinking about preparing an Agenda for the upcoming year. My preference? At-a-Glance monthly.  With this particular type of Agenda, I am able see an entire month of things I want to remember – like upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  I have used a monthly agenda for years.  My Grandkids call it nana's brain.  I love that.  They are, in fact, closer to the truth than they may realize.

So – as is my tradition - I sat down at the dining room table on a dreary, rainy October day and began to mark my At-a-Glance 2022 monthly calendar with all “my” important dates.  I use green for birthdays and anniversaries.  I sometimes put the age of the person in parenthesis following their name as the years tend to get away from me. My grandson was in one of those what I call nippy nappies on my counter yesterday and today he bends down to give me a hug. Back to the point -- I use red ink to indicate when taxes are due, and other dates that I need to remember to keep me out of prison. You know that kind of date.  Heaven knows we have made enough tax deadlines and scheduled enough car inspections over the years to know their importance. I fill in the rest of the important stuff as I go along day by day. At the end of the month, I look back in wonder at how many things I actually accomplished...or not.

As I worked on this project moving from the cluttered and detailed 2021 to the blank slate of 2022, it was  fun to read what all went on last year… a lot of one-year anniversaries of damncovid highlights.  Just think we are approaching year three now.  Good grief. Anyway – I have a tendency to stuff important papers and to stick post-it notes on my Agenda and guess what I found?   I found two post-its with messages that I want to share with you. 

The first is an excerpt that I apparently found in a Mindful magazine at some point.  I vaguely remember the article – it was about what the writer described as mindful self-compassion rather than self-judgement.  The quotation I obviously wanted to remember?  “Learn to be kind to your imperfect self.”  I think this one works on a couple of different levels. Right?

I didn’t write down the source of the words on the second post-it.  Drat that.  I tried to Google it, but all I came up with was a Buddhist 12 step program and a similar sentiment on a T-shirt. Now Buddhists are known for their mindfulness so maybe it came from the same article as the first post-it.  Wish I knew where to give credit. Anyway -- these words take it a step further:

        Be kind to yourself. Be Present. Face it.

        One breath.

        One thought.

        One choice at a time.

I love the message on both of these post-it notes.  I see why I jotted them down. The thing is, as I move forward on my journey this time around, I like, more and more, to sit with things for a while.  You know what I mean? To think deeply about, to mull…. I figure I will get there eventually.  If not – I have enjoyed the process. And -- isn’t “mull” a fun word?  It sort of lingers in your throat when you say it out loud – it sounds like what it means... and it is a soft and gentle sound. I think we need more soft and gentle these days.  I have been giving that notion quite a bit of thought lately.