Each fall it’s back to school — a new start to the educational year, a mid-year chance at a do-over. A fresh start complete with great sales on pencils, pens, papers and folders.
Now it’s a new year for real (woo hoo!). The year 2015 has transitioned into 2016, with all the endless possibilities a new blank calendar represents.
But that also means there are a million and one things to think about in anticipation of the coming 365 days (only 359 days til Christmas!!). Looking ahead to all the things I want to get done “before summer,” I inevitably realize there’s simply no way to get everything done.
It’s so easy to get carried away with all the things that we could do, might do, should do, neeeeeed to do. Sitting here in January, I realize again that winter will end sooner than I think, the year will zip by faster than I figured, and there will be a long list of things that will have to wait until next winter — or maybe be ditched completely.
And that’s okay, too.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life is all about adapting on the fly to the opportunities that present themselves.
Doing my New Year’s Day retrospective on the past year, looking back at last year’s day planner, there are all kinds of things that weren’t on the official plan for the year that ended up being fun, spontaneous and hugely important.
Seriously, I would never have planned on January 1, 2015 to “find a Doepke Yardbird and restore it.” (Mostly because until May of last year, I had no clue such a thing even existed!).
Instead of my best laid plans (which involved a new paint job in the living room), we walked into an antique shop, found this cool old hand-crank railroad car, and our son decided he wanted to do a project “just like Rick Dale on American Restoration!”
What followed was an incredible learning experience filled with real-world skills. Sanding, painting, welding, problem solving on the fly, budgeting, and dealing with the inevitable snafus (dust in the paint…it ain’t pretty!)
After that, what good is a rail car with no rails? A few hacks with metal fence posts, and he’s got a rolling rail car!
And the living room — maybe it can get painting this year.