“Look, the first tulip,” says Karen Munro of The Bowen Island Dog Ranch. I look down but can’t see it. These busy city eyes of mine keep missing it.
“There, turn around, you walked right passed it,” she says smiling. I’m five years on Bowen and am still picking up on the seasonal rituals of this place and the meaning behind them. True to her excitement, a lovely yellow bud had flowered as a result of our crazy February sunshine. I wonder if seeing the first tulip is much like catching the first star of the night.
Starlight star bright the first star I see tonight... What wish will I make? I think as I carry on with my day. Spring light first sight of tulips to my delight... I wish I may I wish I might... to make February my new January and start my year off right. Okay, the rhyme is kind of cheesy, but isn’t it true that this is the time of year where things start to fall apart? Our best laid fitness plans, health kicks and happiness goals start to feel too hard to accomplish and our promises to ourselves begin to erode into old habits that keep us the same. Wouldn’t it be nice to start over?
Last year Fawn Gill of The Gym on Bowen Island told me that the fitness industry is now calling February the new January. From a marketing perspective it makes sense but feels kind of empty, forgetting of course that all good marketing campaigns are driven by the psychology of our audience. We WANT a new beginning. We want the BELIEF that we can start again, or simply get started if we haven’t already. I’m not your typical sporty person, but I do love the mindset of athletes and the great ones like Fawn have figured out the connection between “Just Do It” and “I’m Worth It”.
So what would you begin this month, or even next month if you could let yourself start? It’s not about resolutions or do-or-die goals (those never work for me because I’m an achiever and so I’ll be the one dying as I cross the finish line), it’s not about keeping your word. It is about giving yourself the gift of choice: choosing to step forward into what you envisioned during the first week of January when you had the wind of a new 2015 at your back. This coming Monday marks 60 days into the new year and on this island home of ours we seem to buy into the illusion of fast time passage, unless of course we’re talking about the ferry refit.
How many times have you have heard “I can’t wait until that ferry fixing thing is done. I just can’t wait!”
January 5th to May 5th seems like an impossible amount of time to have to deal with inconvenience, but 60 days of procrastinating on our dreams, our goals, and our potential, whips by us in a flash. It’s not like we don’t know this, but still, it bares repeating for our own sanity and gentle kick in the pants: time doesn’t actually move at all, either we do, or we don’t.
Let’s go back to the beautiful yellow tulip and the promise of new beginnings. At this time last year we were on the tail end of a few snow days. The kids loved it! A few days ago my youngest came home full of kindergarten in his eyes, expounding on how “Its SPRING!!! And new things are GROWING mama!!!”
This February, we have pussy willows, the beginning of blossoms, and yes, even tulips. We’ve been blessed with cold clear nights with warm inspiring days. We’re a few months early into the season of birth, of new possibility, and of beginnings. What do you say we run with it?
What if you let February be your new January? What would you begin or reinvest in if you let yourself believe that this time, this moment, this second is completely and absolutely yours to grow in to?
Spring light first sight, of tulips to my delight... Oh Bowen you inspired me again.
