The Monday of the Year

January 2017

 

Sunday Jan 14 2024

Today Pastor said that January is the Monday of all the months of the year.  And in the same breath she said January is full of possibility, and to prove it, distributed “star words” to all us in the congregation.

I have ample evidence that January acts as the Monday of the year.  Getting back into my work schedule has been more difficult than usual this year.  I now work with colleagues half my age, and they know stuff, such as Python, and biofuels markets, and how to make cool charts, that I have proved incapable of learning.  I am reminded of my shortcomings in that regard every work day.

Further January Mondayness occurred just today (which is Sunday), when I banged my knee HARD when going up the attic fold-out stairs to put away the Xmas decorations.  I am fine, but I had to say owie owie owie for several minutes.  I’m lucky I didn’t fall off the attic stairs from the sudden pain.

January Mondayness may also show up in these decidedly “first-world” problems:  The masking tape I had to use for closing up the boxes was awful, despite being brand name tape.  I have not been able to buy a decent roll of masking tape in the past 20 years.  Why did I have to use lousy masking tape?  Because the freezer tape, which should be a star word because it works so stellarly,  has been missing for the past 2 weeks.  And UPS was closed today at the time I was able to go there, so I couldn’t mail the space heater to Younger Daughter (who now lives in even colder climes).

January behaves as a Monday, in that all the organizations I keep stats for expect a reckoning of the stats for the past year.  All the numbers are due in January.  It is overwhelming.

The giving of “star words”  is a fun and possibly misguided church practice  of picking at random a word that is supposed to guide you for the entire calendar year.  Like the star guided the Magi to the no-longer-a-baby Jesus, you know?  I like this custom because I receive a glittery star to hang somewhere in my house.  I tend to like shiny things and words, so star words should be right up my alley.  

I acknowledge with gratitude that someone takes the time to painstakingly glue about a hundred meaningful words onto glitter stars, AND attach a loop for hanging the star. At the same time I admit that in past years I have mostly ignored the star word I picked from the bowl.  

This year my star word is “Listen”.  This is further proof that January is the Monday of months.  

I used to think of myself as a very good listener - I genuinely wanted to hear what people had to say, and was interested in learning about people.  But my skill in this area went out the window in around 2017.  Receiving the star word ‘listen’ is like a slap in the face saying to me, what happened to you, anyway?

I am relieved that my star word is not “CleanUpYourDesk”.

Maybe I could relearn how to listen.  What to listen TO is important, and the choices are nearly endless.   

Pastor is right.  January is full of possibility.

Monday Morning Quiz, 2015