Fresh Start

I think I may have mentioned this, but it’s fall again and the leaves are falling. So all of those procrastinating trees, who meant to make more leaves before it was too late, are now off the hook. It’s too late this year but next spring they’ll have a fresh start!

This happens to people all the time, too, for lots of reasons.  A student’s slate is cleared at the end of every semester.  The Chicago Cubs’s plate is cleaned off pretty good each year, too, right before playoffs.  Got fired?  No more work bullshit.  Wario came out of nowhere and beat you out of first place?  Game over; hit reset. Saving room for dessert?  Clear these plates and bring in the chocolate mousse!  Clean slates come in many forms.

Sometimes it’s the actual change of seasons that drives the change for you.  It’s springtime?  Cross “shovel driveway” off your list.  It’s summer?  Cross “spring cleaning” off your list.  It’s fall?  Cross “weed garden” off your list.  Your needs even change with the time of day.  It’s bedtime?  Cross “make bed” off your list.  Time moves on and so should you.  It’s not a failure that you didn’t get it done, it’s a success that you didn’t bother.

The point is: relish the cleaning of the slate, no matter how happy or sad it makes you. It represents a change of season in your life – the taking of the present and making it the past. Enjoy the tearing up of old to do lists and the making of new, much shorter to do lists. All those things you procrastinated on no longer matter – the stress of them hanging over your head has dissipated. The hollow feeling of failure dissolves and is replaced by a creamy chocolate mousse. This Haiku is for you. Enjoy!

Throw away your list
The time for change is always
Start your next list now