It is fascinating to hear how people think about and picture the passage of time. 

When I think about the year ahead it resembles  an oval race track (I cringe at the word race – for I find more and more that I’m trying to slow the passage of time – but I’ll use it for descriptive sake.)

Picture the one at your old highschool that encircles the football field.  Perhaps like mine it was made of red cracked cement with white lines and markings to signal distance travelled. 

The straight stretch along the side would be the months of January, February, and March, the cold dark winter months without any major holidays to break them up. 

On the other side you would find July and August, the hot meandering muggy summer with unbridled possibility. 

The rounded corners are the shoulder months.

 April, where seemingly overnight the endless winter suddenly turns to spring. 

June, where the rush of finalizing school work, finishing spring cleaning and planning for July 4th weekend speeds it past in a blur.

Summer steals the Labor Day holiday as its own, leaving September abridged, with just 3 short weeks to adjust to back to school, back to reality. 

November and December, twirling by in a holiday haze.

As we whip around the December curve, heading down the straight stretch of winter, I’ll embrace the cold crisp air, the darker days meant to remind us all to take more time to rest. I’ll re-focus on the things that inspire and nourish me, both figuratively and literally.

Food. I’ve printed out 10 new recipes to try in January.

Creativity. I’ve purchased a new lense for my SLR camera, and I’ll finally take that out to play.

Family. I’ll pledge to leave my phone in my purse when I arrive home, taking a 2 hour break to play, focus, decompress. Seems so simple right? It’s not.

Fresh Air. Every day. Rain or shine. Light or dark.

But then, let’s not get too caught up in the future. For as Gandhi reminds us, “the future depends on what you do today.”