“Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’…” ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
Okay, so another new year has just started and everyone’s talking about new year’s resolutions.
Which is fine. I’m not here to be a snarky hipster and hate on the very idea of making resolutions or scheduling goals around arbitrary markers of time.
I’m all for plans, and goals, and any kind of improvements anybody might want to make. If you’ve got a plan that you think will make you fitter, happier, healthier, richer, or whatever else you feel the need to be, then I will support you all the way.
What I would suggest though is maybe don’t start it off in January; maybe wait until 1st April instead.
January is really not a good time for making resolutions. January really isn’t a good time for anything. But especially not for giving things up, or starting at the gym, or going running, or just leaving the house any more than you have to.
January is cold. It was minus three degrees here yesterday. It’s cold, and it’s dark, and it will not stop raining.
And after two weeks of skiving, and bank holidays, and Christmas merriment you have to go back to work or whatever else your normal is on Monday. And you won’t like getting up in the morning, and you won’t like going outside, and you’ve spent more money than you usually do over Christmas and you’re not getting paid again for weeks.
On top of which there’s a nasty cold and some other bug going around. And even more people than usual are falling out, splitting up, and filing for divorce.
And then we have to get through Blue Monday, the third Monday in January, which is on the 18th this year, and is officially the most depressing day out of the whole year.
Now is simply not the time for adding pain and deprivation into the mix. Now is the time for taking gentle, loving care of yourself and everyone around you.
My plan for January is to eat plenty of hearty food, and cake, lots of cake, and drink tea, and huddle up warm under blankets. I’m going to read even more books, and watch more TV with my boyfriend, and catch up with more of my friends in nice, warm indoor places while we drink really nice wine. I’m going to do lots of writing, and creating, and planning. Under plenty of blankets with lots of tea and cake.
The blankets, and the tea, and the cake are important.
Because January is the worst and we must do all the nice things we can to make it cheerier.
And then we can take up running and cut down on chocolate in April; when the clocks have gone forward so it doesn’t go dark in the middle of the afternoon, and the weather should hopefully be at least a bit warmer, and there’ll be trees and flowers blooming, and it’ll be generally more bearable outside.
Plus our immune systems and bank accounts will hopefully be feeling a bit healthier. And if all else fails at least the May bank holidays and summer will be close enough to look forward to.
What do you say?
Make-Up & Mirtazapine 