|
Everyone has their own
New Year routine--resolutions, annual filing and paperwork, etc. One of
my favorite parts of the new year is that fresh, unmarked calendar.
I have calendars
everywhere--a brownie calendar in the living room, butterfly calendar in
the bathroom, local photo calendar in the home office, WVU Extension
calendar in my office at work.
Then I have
The Calendar, the one on my desk, the one that I write in. There are no
fancy photos, no words of wisdom, no weather predictions on this beast.
Only big, blank squares which span two pages--each with a number in the
upper left hand corner.
Until this
morning, when I returned to work after a wonderful break, that calendar
was as clean and pure as the driven snow.
Mind you, I
had December’s calendar in front of me when I arrived. Covered in notes
and scribbles in five different colors, it has arrows pointing to
footnotes in the margins. The corners are torn or rolled at the edges.
It is marked and wrinkled with coffee cup rings, and chocolate smudges.
But the
fresh 2005 calendar lay right next to it, waiting, still wrapped in
cellophane. I spent an hour this afternoon marking it up in different
colors with highlighters, markers, and pens noting commission meetings,
council meetings, staff meetings. Delivery dates, graduation dates, Wood
Festival and Molasses festival dates, Octoberfest,
Bluegrass
festivals, Veteran’s Day.
The problem with this
method of scheduling is this--the events scheduled for work never make
it to my calendars at home, and the events scheduled on the home
calendars never make it to the calendar at work.
This year, I was
provided the solution in a Christmas present --a spiral bound 2005
monthly calendar.
It has big
blank blocks that span nearly two pages, but the blocks have lines in
them for clearer writing. Along the right hand column is a lined section
for important dates. Blocks for work events and lines for home events.
Ball point pens only for this special booklet.
A calendar
may seem like a little thing, but look at the popularity of pocket
planners and personal organizers. If I were to lose my calendars, I
would be lost. Having my two calendars join together should definitely
improve my scheduling.
I once had a
friend who was taking college courses at four different colleges in
three different states--and she made her living as an over the road
truck driver. For two years she carried this schedule in order to
receive her degree in the shortest amount of time. She studied in truck
stops, restaurants, bars, and could schedule her runs around (or near
to) her classes.
When I asked
her how she knew where she was, much less where she was going and what
she was supposed to do when she got there, she produced a worn blue, but
perfectly neat personal organizer which fit (barely) in her purse.
Listed
within the pages were homework assignments, class times, finals week,
computer lab schedules for four different colleges, cell phone numbers,
truck permits, maps and directions, and so much more. Her life was in
that book, and I remember the day she lost it.
It was like
her brain was gone and she literally didn’t know which way to move. She
couldn’t even remember a phone number to call.
Oh yes, the
calendar is important. It is not a trivial thing. Calendars are the
future--and they are the past.
Each year we
get a fresh, clean calendar; a new, yet-unscheduled life. Last year’s
calendar now reflects a year--a colorful, annotated year of your life.
Even blank dates are reminders of days spent in the garden, visiting
friends, or spending time with family.
Seems a
shame to just throw it away.
|