Just Do It!
Marching into Spring
Despite the recent cold spell here in the Berkshires, there are a few miraculous, and tentative bulbs bravely poking through the frozen ground. An optimistic chipmunk just showed up at the base of the bird feeder for the first time in months. The days are a little longer and daylight savings time is just around the corner. Spring is almost here.
There’s a palpable feeling of pent-up energy everywhere. In our gardens and forests, communities and cities and, after this long, dark pandemic winter, within us.
Our gardens are going to need a tidy up in preparation for what’s to come and so do we! It may not be time to put our snow shovels away but it is the perfect time to put a stop to all that winter procrastination. Procrastination that we are so comfortable with when the dark lingers longer than the light. We may have all the modern comforts in the world but our stone age, survival brains are wired for hibernation when it’s cold and gloomy. The sun drops below the horizon early and all we want is to mix a drink, switch on our current Netflix fix and curl up under a nice warm blanket….delicious!
But the unsettling winds of change have begun to blow, bringing with them a challenge to our comfort and complacency. Now, they seem to be saying, is the time for some action. Now is the time to do all of those things that we have been putting off for months if we are to be prepared for the next chapter.
Worry not, for you are not alone. Get out that list of tasks you’ve been meaning to do. You know, it’s the one that’s hiding under a pile of papers on your desk. You don’t want to find yourself regretting not tackling all the things you’ve been putting off because they get in your way later.
Take an inventory: How’s the fitness program going? What haven’t you tidied up? How’s that decluttering coming along? What have you been putting off? Your taxes? Routine doctors’ appointments? Signing up for life insurance? Up-grading your phone? Calling a friend?
Break the list down into bite size bits and start today one bite at a time. Try to get something finished, no matter how small, because that sense of accomplishment will help energize you to tackle the next thing.
Don’t put it off until tomorrow because, believe me, you are not going to feel like doing it then either. And worse, you’ll add guilt or shame to the mix which will of course make you feel even less like tackling anything.
Current projections show there’s every likelihood that the world will begin its own tentative, optimistic opening over the coming months. Many opportunities, possibilities and re-inventions are waiting to sprout, then blossom. So let’s get marching into spring, ready to go with this new found energy flow so that we too can blossom.
