I came down with an annoying head cold a few days after Christmas so on this first day of the new year, I’ve opted to stay home on the couch, next to a lit fireplace, and NOT run in the Commitment Day 5K that my husband and I had signed up for a few months ago. Jim went and ran an impressive 7:01 minute pace. When he came home he shared that he’s committed himself to dramatically cutting back on sugar consumption in his diet.
Then he asked me if I was making any resolutions this year.
Whatever.
We’ve been married 37 years and you’d think he’d know me better by now! In his heart hope springs eternal.
There’s too much pressure on January 1st. Too many expectations, too many good intentions, too many people crowding the gyms and reading labels at the grocery store.
This is what I know about myself: I’ve found that my resolutions come about and happen in their own time.
A whole lot of years ago, after watching my mother try to make sense of decades worth of loose snapshots, I resolved to keep my own family photo albums up to date so I’d have an accurate record of the years as we navigated our way through the constant changes of military life. There are now 60 albums lined up on bookshelves keeping the timeline of our lives in some sort of order.
On June 12, 2011 I posted my first Instagram and decided to post one image a day in an attempt to make myself more aware of the world around me. Yesterday’s post was #1431. That’s three and a half years of pictures, day after day after day.
On November 13, 2012 I started a blog to stretch not just my photography but also my writing skills. At first it was difficult to decide on subject matter but as soon as I discovered weekly photo challenges I became much more consistent in my postings. Since that very first post I’ve published 167 times. They’re mostly a way for me to keep life from sliding by unnoticed but I also enjoy the connections they forge with the people who read them.
Most recently I went back to running. It would have been easy to decide to put that off until this first day of January in 2015 but one sunny day in October I put my running shoes back on after a ten-year hiatus and set out. The day was right, my resolve was right, the timing was right. Until I came down with this cold, I was on a roll and I expect to be back at it in a few days.
So here’s to NOT making a New Year’s Resolution today. Here’s to knowing when the timing is right in one’s life for change and making that change even if the month is June, or October, or November.
Not all new beginnings need to happen on January 1st.
Happy 2015! I thank all of you who follow me on Instagram, have “liked’ my Instagram FB page, or read my blog. You have a special place in my life because you keep me honest and inspire me to keep going.
pauses&clicks 