Oh, the possibilities!

It's here.

My new desk calendar.

It came in yesterday.

Everyone else got theirs a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason, Shirley forgot to order mine.

Look at it. Clean. Uncluttered. Full of possibilities.

Sometimes I wish my life was still like that, like when I was younger - clean, uncluttered, and full of possibilities.



See how fast a calendar can go to "possibilities" to "realities?"

Our lives are the same way.

One minute, you're graduating from high school, or college, or getting married, or in the middle of insert-your-favorite-life-change-here.

The next minute you've made your choices, and you're living with those consequences - both good and bad.

I sometimes get a little blue when I read wedding announcements. Ironic, since it used to be my job to put those things in the paper!

I look at the happy couple, and read what they have accomplished so far: graduating from school, or about to; working their first job, or going to grad school; moving into their first home.

You know, Jason and I never had a wedding announcement. I never got around to submitting one to my local paper, and, well, Jason didn't really care about putting one in Augusta's paper.

I guess if we had, it would've sounded pretty great: we were college graduates, and he had a job at a church, and I was ready to take on the world.

Our reality was much, much different. The first six months, we survived on prayer and $250 a week. We had LOTS of credit card debt, because no one taught us about those things before we went to college. I couldn't find a job to save my life. If it hadn't been for help from some kind souls at church, I'm sure we would've been living with my mother-in-law by Christmas *shudder*.

I suppose those young couples could be in the same boat. I mean, you can make almost anything sound the way you want in print! The people reading the announcements don't follow you home to see if you make something of your life.

This year, let's make our possibilities into our realities. (Boy, some motivational speaker should be paying me big bucks!) Let's take this blank-slate of a calendar, and fill it with good things. Let's be at a different, better place in our lives this time next year.

Even if you're one of those whose life is perfect now (and if you are, I'd like to hang out with you for a day or two and see how you do it!) I think we can all find parts of our world where the possibilities don't match the realities.

Happy New Year, y'all!