In his book, New Under the Sun, Kevin Major has one of his characters state: “Above all …., one must not plod through life with regret. One plods one’s way to the grave soon enough!”
At this turn of the year, let’s not overburden ourselves with regrets for things not accomplished in the last 12-month; let’s get on with 2012 — resolutions or no!
To ease any guilty consciences out there, let me whine on about the perhaps trivial regrets on my own list … and please feel free to adopt, then quickly discard them as you wish and march determinedly into the new year.
Where to start?
Probably best to begin with the item that hindered the doing of many others on my ‘regrets list’. Number one has to be the books still unread. Not, you understand, that I didn’t read; the problem is/was that I did a lot of what you might call recreational reading, and did not get to those serious, worthwhile books which I come across once in a while when I straighten out tables and bookshelves.
But … in realigning the books on the coffee table during the ‘Christmas sweep,’ I’ve left an assortment of five out there to be perused without fail in the coming weeks. Interesting that some of them have been in the same place for the past year and are likely just waiting to be buried (again) under future tomes and magazines.
A regret almost neck-in-neck with the book problem is the disaster in Alvin IV’s house. If you’re reading this, you are reading words elbowing for space on a hard drive in total disarray. ‘House-ly’ housekeeping is one thing, where you can see the mess in front of your eyes; tidy computering requires a knowledge and firm resolution to deal with crises unseen and outside this scribe’s expertise … until the crash! (But I did just buy an external drive for extra storage.)
Getting back to the visuals. On the patio beyond the sunroom windows another struggle for space. Four tubs of lilies and a lavatera have been promised their own homes in the good earth. “This will be the year to divide and wander,” I kept saying … until it became too cold to accomplish the job in comfort. In gardener’s lingo I remind myself that there’s always next year.
Outside my main and favorite window on the world of growing things, another promise took shape over the years, never to be fulfilled in a satisfactory manner. I love blueberries and so do the birds. The latter seem always to get the best of the crop because I’ve yet to devise a blueberry house that is easy to put up and take down … and is impenetrable by the feathered ones.
The year I did put up a reasonable shield of post-supported netting, I found myself trapped inside with the berries!
Don’t laugh, birds.
And the list goes on … letters not written, things unlearned (like setting up my external hard drive), trails un-walked, and exercises excused (for more pressing activities or recreational reading).
If I put my mind to it, innumerable other regrets would filter in, but you get the idea.
But listen! In this year, 2011, I cleaned out my file drawer, strained the capacity of the shredder, and made up brand new folders, in legible lettering, for every heading in my life. (Yes, yes, Alvin, I hear you; don’t nag.)
So maybe give the regrets five minutes or so, then just get on with it! 2012 awaits with all kinds of possibilities. Happy New Year all!
