Lame duck week is a limbo of sorts. One could think of it as a preparation time, I suppose, getting ready for the next year. I think there's truth in this, however: If you're not prepared at this point you're not going to be. It's okay. You don't really have to be. You survived last year.
Like many people, I spend this week in retreat from normal, working life. I stick close to the people who love me, my family, and take a long deep breath before the plunge. I love the plunge, I really do, but I love the long deep breath as well.
I wonder how 2006 me is different than 2005 me. I'm sure I've changed, and hopefully grown, over the past year. Some might expect that we would be experts in us, that we could enumerate who we are and compare this with older enumerations of who we were. You may possess this power. I do not. Sometimes I can feel it when I change, and sometimes the newness goes unnoticed. Even when I feel it, I rarely bother to make note of it. Even a few hours later, I would swear to you that I was always as I am now.
Using trees as a metaphor, we are not new shoots each year, pushing through the soil. We're trees already. We've lost and gained limbs. We've added another ring. We may have been damaged in strong winds. Nevertheless, we don't start over. We keep going. Even if they transplant us, and we leave a few too many of our roots behind, we're still the same tree. I love that you are trees with me, and I love the trees that you are.
I have small goals this year. I want the fog in my mind to clear a little. I need to be healthier and more active. I have a few little life projects in which I'd like to progress, but nothing Earth-shattering.
How about you? Besides hanging around here and keeping me company, what would you like to do in the next year? How have you changed in this past year? Do you know? Talk to me.
Later. Love.
