Ring the Bell!

A new year is here, and with it the hopes of accomplishing all the little things we didn’t get a chance to tackle in 2011.  One of the things I am reminded of as I see my children growing is that time is all too often shorter than what we wish for.  It seems like only yesterday that I was living out my ordinary life, riding the school bus (the nightmares I could tell you about those adventures) and hoping that my schooling would be over so I could begin “the real life.” If any of you out there are like me, you too wished that time would speed up its hands so that you could be free from whatever laborious chores you were up against and you would be released upon the world to pursue what you really wanted to do in life. 

Time does speed up for all of us doesn’t it? I have always found that intriguing that although the summers I spent as a child riding bikes (we used to do that sans helmets, mind you) until the streetlights came on, played a what would be foreign today game of Kick the Can (rules were simple, kick the can), and hung out thinking the summer had no end, has now become a lightning speed cataclysmic world, where 8 am turns immediately into high noon, followed by an immediate 3 o’ clock rush hour on the highways and byways home.  How did it all happen?

One thing we must mind is that those times that were slow to us then, but disappointingly and frustratingly sped up now, must be taken advantage of; we no longer have the option that we did as adolescents, saying that we will put off tomorrow what we should have done today. We now are faced with the stark reality that what should be done today, must be done today.  That goes for as much the tasks that are put before us as the many opportunities we have to enjoy the world around us.  This brings me to the question I have twirling like a somersaulting ballerina in my head today; what are your priorities for the New Year?  I am not asking about your resolutions; I can only imagine that it is to be better than you were the previous year and ranges from some sort of diet regimen that you will try to stay on top of (until mid February) to the financial resolutions of cutting your debt, saving money, get a promotion (oy vey!).  More importantly, what are your priorities? There is a difference because unlike resolutions, priorities take the form of what you place at the top of your list, things you will embrace, not just carry out to benefit you.  Priorities sometimes will benefit you, but many times also take sacrifice, devotion and dedication to fully encompass those priorities you have targeted as most important to you.  Resolutions are a way to better yourself where as priorities hang a huge banner that say out loud and confidently, “This is who I am, and what I care about most!”  

Don’t let another year slip by where you are caught playing the “Could of, should of” game.  Take those priorities, shave off a few less important resolutions, and LOL… no, not laugh, Live Out Loud. I’ll be the first to tell you that the kind of priorities we set for our lives is directly indicative of what or who we care about most.  What are those to you?

There is a difference between merely existing, and actually living.  My hope is that we all experience the Latter. Cheers!

-Lou