get started with me
The main obstacle I face in getting started on something (and maybe this is just me here, but bear with me) is the feeling that so much [time has gone by, or back-log has accumulated, or stands in my way] that there is no point starting now. If only I had been disciplined enough to be handling it all along, or at least to have started earlier, then maybe....
I can feel this way any old time, but without a doubt I feel it round about the 9th of January every year. "I Guess That Ship Has Sailed" Day, let's call it. The day when you realize that it's more than a week into the new year and the green-juice/exercise/file-a-pile/clean the sink/stretch more/bitch less/write in my journal every day plan is already showing definite signs of weakness in its struts. Or maybe it has a misplaced ignition key.
A wise therapist said to me once, OK, so let's pretend this is a friend who has come to you to say this (instead of just, you know, you) and the thing this friend is talking about is quitting smoking. What would you say then? To this person you feel friendly towards, and whose health and happiness you hold dear? Would you say, well, it's too late to quit now, you loser. Should have done it last year, last month, yesterday. Now? TOO LATE. No point.
Of course I would not say that. No time like the present! I would say. How can I help? I would say. A new year starts every day--that's the underlying principle to the whole birthday and anniversary industry. Any day you start something is the beginning, even if it does not line up with the Gregorian calendar's official Day One.
Winter--the deepest heart of which we are presently enjoying--does happen to be a good time to look after yourself. It's hard to eat enough of the right things, and shockingly simple to get hold of enough of the wrong things to make you pretty full of rue. I try steer the family ship through sufficient amounts of chia and greens (and chia and greens) to right the course after December's myriad opportunities for Occasion Food (the poor, deprived lambs--slip them a cookie if you see them out and about, as it's all chia and greens here at home). But there are lots of ways to take care of yourself, even I can concede, that begin higher up in the head than the mouth.
It would be awfully nice to wave a wand over my messy desk, my un-albumed photos and my untoned-thighs, to re-set the clock and do the right thing all along, or at least ever since a week ago yesterday.
But maybe all I have to do today is take one right step.
Inspired by this nice post at Art & Lemons, I downloaded this shockingly simple tool, and now I am going to have (hope springs eternal) a year of pictures of my son in one spot. It isn't the same as having three up-to-date baby albums for each child, the same as having any up to date photo albums at all, the same as having taken a picture a day starting when he or one of his sisters was born or two or three years old, or an anniversary picture every year, the same as having been all along all the things I wish to be for each of the people I love most.
But it will be a year of pictures of my son in one spot, or something like it. Even if I didn't start it 1/1. It will be more than I would have had if I had not started some time.
How about you? Do you feel like starting something with me?