Still Time

Last week at a Bible Study I regularly attend, one of the participants mentioned that the winter solstice was coming up. He suggested that we could recognize this day by taking a look at our mental lists of the things we wanted to accomplish in 2009 and challenging ourselves to do whatever has been left undone on that list before the end of the year. He thought it could be a good idea to see how many of our unmet goals we can fulfill in the handful of days that are left. Most of us laughed kind of ruefully at this suggestion. What could we really get done in a few days? And didn't we all give up on our New Year's resolutions before February?

I don't really know if I ever had a list of things I wanted to get done this year. The only things I can think of are finishing my book, which I did in September, and losing a certain amount of weight, of which I've lost about half and have no chance of dropping the rest in a week and a half. So there really isn't much of a list for me to evaluate today. Nevertheless, I still like the attitude that this idea promotes: There's still time, so take action!

So often we tell ourselves that it's "too late" to do something, but that judgment is based on artificial time lines that we've created. New Year's resolutions don't have to just be about the year in which they are made. Some projects take longer than a year to complete, and sometimes our progress is slower than we would like it to be. Still, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're out of time. The dates on the calendar and the time on the clock are not necessarily as rigid as we treat them. I might tell you that it's too late for me to reach my goal weight before an event I'm attending in the spring where I will be wearing my first strapless dress. And that could potentially be a true statement. But that event isn't the only reason I'm trying to lose weight. It's still worth doing, even if I miss my "deadline". Likewise, I sometimes feel that it's "too late" to repair a relationship after years of hurt or silence, but I know that may not be the case. It's never too late for me to get educated, pursue goals, or try to make a difference in someone's life. I don't have to give up just because I have failed my original expectations.

Maybe I haven't accomplished everything that I wanted to in 2009, but there's still a few days left. And when those days are spent, I have all of 2010 to keep trying!