One Eye Forward

A new calendar with days to fill hangs on my wall and a notebook, its pages fresh and clean, lays by my bed ready for me to fill its pages. I wonder what the coming year will bring my way, and I know that my hand will be the one to fill the pages and place my marks on the days of the year. As hard as it is to believe, the hand that pulls down the shade that brings darkness into my mind is usually my own. It is easy to wallow in the injustices and diatribe of daily news that fill my feed and harder still to darken the screen and turn my head toward the day, the light, and the view outside my window where clearly the world continues to turn.

In a world where so many things are going wrong it is easy to push ownership of our failures and shortcomings onto the heaping pile of grievances at our feet. Why bother to work if the federal government is going to tax us to death? Why pay for a social security fund that will not be there for our future? Why invest in a retirement fund or stock market when a collapse seems imminent? Why buy a house only to have the bank own our soul for the next thirty years? I could spend hours listing off enough "whys" to keep you shivering under your bedcovers for the next month, AND yet for all those "whys" that can keep us paralyzed with the fear of the unknown, there is another brighter question that begs the question, why not? The sky is not falling Chicken Little. The world outside is calling for us to paint our future.

How do I know that you ask? The gift of time has taught me much. The problems of today will have solutions tomorrow. A mortgage today will be a debt free deed in the future. Young children that demand our time and attention today will grow and be out the door before we know it, and we will miss the chaos of those young lives. A failed relationship will open the door to a better one. The pendulum of life swings back and forth. Trust me when I tell you that it will all happen so quickly.

So, step lightly and with purpose into this new year of yours. Pick up the brush and paint a picture of your future. The debts you acquire, the balance in your bank account, the amount you invest in your future, the life you end up with are a result of the picture you chose to paint. Your dreams of a career, a family, a home and eventually a retirement – how will you get there? Push the brush firmly onto the canvas of your life and start painting the life of your dreams. Live in each moment with one eye toward the future. May your dreams fill a large canvas and may the colors you chose to paint with be bright and filled with joy!