It's New Year's Day, and a lot of time has passed since the last
installment of this blog. WAY too much time. I guess that's the way life
is. We get so distracted by things that we have to do in our life, we
fail to make time for the things we want to do.
As I spent
some time perusing through old posts, I noticed how much I enjoy reading
them. It's almost like someone else wrote them, even though I know they
came out of my head. It's almost scary how much we forget in our life,
despite how much we think we remember.
As a teacher, one of
the things I recommend to the people who explore with me is that
writing can increase our awareness of ourselves and how we respond to
the world around us. It creates a little window into a moment in time
that we will otherwise probably forget. If we take time every day to
write about something good that happened, or something we learned, it
can transform the way we see our life. We can look back over time, and
realize all of the growth we've had. Or we can remind ourselves of all
the wonderful moments after they are long forgotten and we are wallowing
in our challenges.
So this is the lesson: appreciate the little
things. And a great way to do it: choose a purpose or theme and write
about it. If not every day, at least make an appointment to do it at
least a few times a week. Put it on your calendar. Set a reminder on
your phone. It doesn't have to be long. It might just be slips of paper
you put into a jar or a box, and then pull out at the end of the year to
see how far you have come. It may seem like work, but you will grow to
love it, and trust me: You will appreciate it a year from now, or even
decades from now, when you read what you wrote.
I don't believe in resolutions,
so don't call it that. Make a commitment. To yourself. Think of it as a
belated Christmas gift, if you can't see it any other way. Get a
notebook. Get a scratch pad. Start an online blog. Whatever works for
you. It's a little thing you can do for yourself, that will help you
remember and appreciate the little things in your life.
Blessings...