Musing on change. Is a penny’s worth, worth anything?
“Jamie, why try? You’ll never change.”
That was my husband last night. The one person who has eaten, ran and slept by my side longer than anyone on this planet.
I’m a big one on setting goals (my preferred term) but why make them, if I’m never going to change?
* * *
Goodbye anything good happening 2012. I swept out all good fortune. One tradition says there should be no cleaning, certainly no sweeping away from the house on January 1st. That brushes all luck away.
Hmp. Well, I actually took the tree out January 2 but I entertained on New Year’s and cleaned my house in a manner I should everyday.
Or should I?
Why do I want to spend my entire year cleaning house? But that is a different post entirely.
It’s January 4, 2012 and I chose to share my world with a husband and three children. Gladly share, most days
But the most positive of mental “I can do this” attitude quickly erodes when expending energy searching one more time for a child’s shoe or refereeing another fight caused by playing tackle football in a 6 foot triangle between the television cabinet, sofa and other piece of furniture that people sit on (not sure what to call it?).
Goals for me in 2012?
What about all the goals for my children?
Art, dance, more art, tutoring, playing school sports, playing recreation sports, tennis, Spanish, French, fluency in Mandarin Chinese? Reading levels to be leapt in a single bound and square roots to 1,225,400 memorized. Rough drafts for senior papers which were to be completed by the end of this break.
Pets. Goals for them. Keeping them alive and happy. We have one very sick Oscar at the moment and it took over an hour of my day cleaning his tank yesterday. Time I should have been putting Christmas decorations in boxes.
I will set goals.
I’ll set them this weekend. Setting goals the second weekend of January is something my husband and I have done for over a decade.
The same husband who half-affectionately/half-exasperatedly said I’ll never change.
He’s right you know. The way the good Lord wired us isn’t going to change.
But I intend to work improving the way he linked up my DNA — the good and the bad.
Taking my inspiration from Cinderella, our tortoise. She gets places.
Not fast but before you know it she’s clawing at the door.
I need Cinderella’s focus. Not the focus of another Disney favorite, Dory, from Finding Nemo.
My children need better than Dory, my husband needs better — and no one knows better than me I need better then Dory.
If I can just remember what they were?
What about you? Does setting goals work?
