Rudolph's Shiny New Year

Here we are. Into the second week of a new year. Kind of makes me think of the baby in Rudolph's Shiny New Year. So young. A bright future ahead of him, filled with endless possibilities.

Here we are. With a new year ahead, potentially filled with endless possibilities.

Or so we like to think. And it may very well be true. But see, time...well time is a funny thing. It has a way of sneaking by you while you're unaware of its passing. You think you've got plenty of it, only to look over your shoulder for a second and come to a sudden, horrified stop, realizing that your life, and all the time you thought you had, has passed right by you. Just like that.

All the things you promised yourself you'd do, all the places you planned to go and see...you never did or went or saw. And while it may not be too late to do and go and see, it's certainly not as much of a realistic goal as it once was.

Maybe you've had some of these thoughts. Maybe, like me, the beginning of a new year gets you thinking about Time. How much you have. How much you don't have. How much you waste. How you spend it.

Time is a valuable thing. And for many, there's a limited supply. It moves quickly, ticking away like an activated bomb.

That doesn't mean we should rush around trying to do and go and see everything we can before it goes off, before we've no time left. That's not what I'm getting at. However, I do think that with the understanding of how truly valuable our time is, we should be making an effort to see the value in everything we experience, and those we experience it with.

I read this post earlier today (shared by one of my Facebook friends - thanks Calen!) and it really got me thinking about how much time I spend on things that I probably won't even remember when I reach the last days and hours of my allotted time here on this beautiful Earth.
I may not be remembered by millions of people for hundreds of years. I may not discover anything monumental. I may never publish a book that'll make it as a New York Times Bestseller. I may not publish a book at all. These are all great things of course, but they don't trump things like the love and support of family. The compassion and understanding of great friends. The unconditional love and loyalty seen in the big brown eyes of my dog. Time spent with my sister, eating food, drinking coffee, wandering around, listening to Sam Hunt in the car and laughing because we just get each other in a way that nobody else gets us.
What do these all have in common?

Connection.

To really experience these things it requires connecting with those in your life. It requires being there, in the moment. Putting the phone down. Closing the book. Removing the headphones. Whatever it takes to be there. Focus on the person across from you. Participate in the conversation wholeheartedly, don't just make a partial attempt to be halfway present. Really be there.

So that's my goal. Not as a New Year's resolution, which, too often, is forgotten after a few months and, wrongly, becomes a source of guilt, making us feel like we've failed.
No, this is a goal for life. To create newfound depth and meaning. To bring quality and connectedness to life in the coming years. Because I want my time to be used for people and things that are truly important. To experience true connection in every relationship, as far as I have the ability to do so. Some things are beyond my control, and the only thing I can do is to accept and deal with it as well as I can. But the things I do have control over, I hope to do my best with whatever it is. Because I don't want to look back over my time and wish I'd done this or taken that opportunity when I had the chance. I don't want to regret not going there when I could have.

So here we are. The time is now.

XO
-B.