Beginnings, Middles, and Ends

Happy New Year!

I enjoyed a quiet and relaxed holiday break. I steered clear of obsessing about making ten million things - no Santa's workshop for me this year! Didn't travel - until yesterday, that is - and completely by choice. Stayed away from the workplace for a few days here and a couple days there. Also kept myself away from working, giving myself time to rest and nest a bit. Shopped very little but effectively - a few gifts bought, wrapped, and mailed. Did a little rare wardrobe shopping for myself: walking boots, sale trousers and shirts to replace unwearables which leave home this week. I cleaned a little, mended a little, cooked a little, knit a little, read a little, and socialized a little.

This weekend proved a thoughtful one, notions swirling about beginnings, middles, and ends. I liked reading about mittenfarce's challenge to finish projects and to cast on a fresh start to the year. I read several references to cleaning the decks, the house, the slate. Couldn't find the steam to do the full clean sweep of any particular realm, though, not the home, not the project queue, not the office, the closet, or the slate. At the same time I found myself fascinated by the notion of "starting as you mean to end" - or perhaps to start as I mean to carry on.

The truth is I like all three places. I like the fresh energy of a start. I love the mess, focus, and process of the middle - even if that sometimes gets bogged down by despairing of progress. I'm silly enough to be amused by counting or measuring productive progress and distractable enough to keep from obsessing over the numbers. And like any properly inconsistent human, I love, hate, rejoice, sigh, celebrate, mourn, and mark endings of various stripes.

A good story, it is said, has a clear beginning, middle, and end, however it is packaged.

I confess, I'm not always a linear beginning, middle, and end person. And this is where I find myself at this turn of a year. I rather enjoy that there are so many stories underway. I have beginngs, middles, and ends to tend to. There will be more to come.