Facing Reality During the Holidays

A lot of people see January as their “point of planning” for the year to come. They do resolutions, and plans, and grids, and all manner of things to give themselves some direction for the next twelve months. And often, it’s just more of the same: do the diet, make the money, take the vacation, and on and on.

Me? It all starts November 1.

I’ve never been one for the Holiday Spirit (™), with its mass consumerism, eating too much and drinking with abandon and basically putting your brain out to pasture for eight weeks until January comes along with its hangover-energy pinning your bank account and your avoirdupois to the wall.

November and December are my time to be very thoughtful about

Where did I go this year?

What have I learned?

What do I want to change out/repair for next year?

How can I matter in the world in the year to come?

This year, especially, it will be vital.

The election is going to be bad — how bad, we don’t yet know. But I won’t sugar coat it; we’re in for some very dark times in the US, as well as the rest of the world. And I think it starts in January.

So this year it’s a matter of planning carefully, making sure that I am ready for whatever is coming down the road, and deciding what I want to leave in my wake.

Part of it is also I am barely on the right side of 70. The old “man lives but three score and ten” idea — any day you get after 70 is a bonus, and not to be wasted. If for any reason I don’t make it past then, have I left my legacy? Has it been completed?

It’s time for us all to realize that we are in times our generations have never known. (The word “unprecedented” is overused.) And it’s time to stop and think:

What will I leave behind when I die?

Will the world have benefited at all from my being here?

What do I want to be remembered for?

Because all of us are meant to leave this place a little better than we found it. If not globally, nationally; if not nationally, regionally; if not regionally, within our community; and if not that, at least for the lives that touch ours.