I did not learn everything I needed to know in kindergarten. I did learn everything I needed to know about the calendar, though.
When I was in kindergarten, the teacher gave each of us a 2 x 2 inch square to color. She told us to decorate it and put our name on it. (See my cheesy rendering of it above ;)).Then she put it on this manila poster board with our little squares all lined up in our respective birthday’s month. When we did circle time, she would strum her autoharp and talk about whose birthday was that month and whose birthday was that week. It fascinated me that after December we jumped all the way to the top of the calendar for January and started all over again. I’ve visualized the calendar like this ever since then.
At the beginning of the year, I feel like I’m standing at the top of a steep ski slope, which is a giant version of the kindergarten calendar (without my classmates’ birthdays). I’m looking down at all the months lined up in row. As the year progresses, I imagine moving down the ski slope. By July, it’s like I’m standing in the middle of the ski slope- I can see the main events of the year crowded up on the slope, and then empty spaces for the remaining months, which are labeled in black with number-line type markers. When it’s December, it feels like I’m at the bottom of the mountain. I can look back at the mountain, with all the year’s happenings stacked up on the hill, like huge Hallmark cards. On December 31, I imagine a beige rubber band bouncing us back to the peak again. Bam!
Today is January 1, 2015. We’re at the summit. The mountain is open and empty again, and fresh new year awaits. Some people will fill their new year with staunch resolutions, only to break them all by January 15. Then their year will fill up by default with life’s busyness and mundane obligations. Is that how you want it?
inspired by The Circlemaker that I check off, modify, and add to. I also wrote out my personal goals, leaving room for God’s surprises and necessary tweaks, one day at a time.
Do you write resolutions? Goals? Lists? Or do you just go with the flow?
P.S. How do you visualize the calendar for the year?