By Abe Villarreal
Dates and calendars are love 'em and hate 'em kinds of things. In some ways, they are imaginary numbers and periods of time. How would our lives be different if we didn't have them or believe in them? Maybe we would behave like every day was our last, or every day was our first.
Because our lives are temporary, we obsessively focus on time, goals, and tomorrows. We set ourselves up to realize accomplishments. We put ourselves in positions of failure. We forget that we are in control, not the calendar or the clock.
No matter how hard we try, time forces us to face realities. This all comes to mind as we begin new days, new weeks, new months, and now a new year. "Time don't wait on no one," a friend once told me, and neither do deadlines, life pressures, to-do lists.
We live by all sorts of sayings that make us want to live in the now. "Don't wait for tomorrow what you can do today," somebody noticeable once said. It's a noble thought, and it makes me think if what we are doing today is something of importance. Something that really is of greater value than the top ten things on your to-do list.
When a new year begins, you begin to think of what you could have, should have, and would have done in the last year if you just had more time. "I should have gone on that vacation," I always tell myself. Visiting family more often, going on that hike with friends, finishing that house project. All things important to you in different ways but not as important as the things you ended up doing in the year gone by.
And yet, you feel a sense of guilt. A sense of failure. So, you roll up your sleeves and you start to brainstorm, thinking of all the things you want to do in the new year. I'm hoping to publish a book with my weekly commentaries. I know, I know, I wanted to do that last year and just didn't get around to it, but it's a new year!
This time of year gives us hopes and a renewed sense that we can accomplish much in the days to come. We have mental clarity and we are confident in our talents. Watch out world, here we come! And then, the inevitable happens. We get busy doing other big things but also little things. The days become shorter, the clock moves faster. Time don't wait on no one. Your goals, save them for the new year.
I hope that this year I can do a lot of what I didn't do in the last, but if I don't, I'll be ok with that. I'm doing today what I can do today and when I get done doing it, there will be tomorrow. There will always be tomorrow. When I think about it, I feel like I have all the time in the world.
Now, it's a new year, and I have a book to write…
Abe Villarreal writes about life and culture in America. He can be reached at abevillarreal@hotmail.com.