HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR SATURDAYS? CHANGING YOUR LIFE WITH WORDS - DAY 129

Are your weekends filled with to-do lists, household chores, chauffeuring children to various activities, going to your office to catch up, or trying to get a jump on your to-do list for the week ahead?  Do you find yourself thinking always about the future (or the past)?

I used to be that way, and I worked practically 24/7 after my children grew up.  The only thing that did for me was ruin my health in many ways.  So I advise my children to work hard but not 24/7.  Instead of worrying about the future or regretting anything in the past I tell them to live in the now.  Today is the only day we may have so be in it.

BE PRESENT!

Mondays! Are They Beginnings or Endings?

September always feels like the beginning of the new year to me (I guess it relates to the start of many new school years). It is the time when I want to get organized and regain structure and routine to overcome the chaos and messiness that somehow crept into life during the lazy days of summer. I feel the same way about Mondays. I never think that Sunday is the first day of the week, but rather Monday. Mondays are when life gets back to normal, schedules exist, schools are in session, appointments are made and kept, and routine household chores are repeated. There are feelings of stability and security that can accompany structure and routine when so many facets of the world in which we live seem to be spinning out of control. Fresh, blank calendar pages quickly become filled with both the mundane and exciting events of our lives. Work weeks generally begin on Mondays, and most of us look forward to Friday nights to start two-day weekends. If I think of Sundays as the beginnings of each new week, then somehow I feel deprived of weekend time. I also like to have Sunday as the end of my week so I can attend church and make my apologies and attempt to wipe the slate clean of that week's mistakes and misdeeds. Then on Mondays I feel as if I have a new opportunity to try to be a better person, to be more organized, to accomplish more, and then to the reward of another glorious two-day weekend. Am I fooling myself? Perhaps. Does it work? You bet it does!