Along with the holiday madness, or perhaps due to the holiday madness, this is the time of year I start to accidentally write next year’s events on this year’s calendar. For lack of attention and lack of a new calendar, January 2011’s dentist appointment ends up unwittingly snuggled up next to January 2010’s basketball practice. At some point I realize the error and buy next year’s calendar to make some oh-so-important transfers.

I have tried switching to a computer calendar a few times, but found that my year’s worth of data entry is all for naught a few weeks later when I either forget to make timely follow-up entries or completely forget I ever switched to an electronic platform. I have always been enamored with electronic planners and amazed by those individuals able to keep up with them. However, a big paper grid on my refrigerator seems to be the only thing I consistently pay attention to, and even then I tend to follow the calendar in my head more than anything else.

I always think this is the year, though. This is the year I am going to have every birthday, anniversary, holiday and school event neatly laid out prior to New Year’s Day and follow it to a tee for the next 364. I color code each type of activity and use my elementary-school penmanship skills to make it look nice and orderly. A precisely planned out year is a thing of beauty.

But beauty fades, and in the case of my calendar, it fades fast. I usually don’t make it to the February flip before scratch-outs, re-writes and scribbled new entries begin to overshadow my attempt at orderliness. My glorious color coding is quickly lost in a sea of black ballpoint chicken scratch.

As the year progresses, each frequently revamped calendar page becomes a metaphor for the daily uncertainty that is family life. One day you think you’re going to be headed for an out-of-town wedding and the next you’re sitting at home with a sick kid instead. Another day you think you’re going to start watching a season’s worth of kindergarten basketball and two days later you’re nursing a kindergartener’s broken arm. In short, it’s always something.

On the other hand, some of life’s best moments are spontaneous occurrences that never claim a slot on our premeditated agenda. Sometimes we try to synchronize our calendars for months only to haphazardly discover one another’s perfect company on a random Friday night. Sometimes a willingness to stray from that which we thought was going to happen puts us on a path to the most magnificent, most unforgettable moments of all. Sometimes the ugliest last-minute chicken scratches are the events that leave us with the fondest of memories.

The only thing I can be certain of as I sit down to bridge from one calendar to the next is that next year will no doubt seem to go by even faster than this one. As I reflect on the past twelve months, it amazes me how some events feel as if they happened years ago while others feel like just yesterday. Looking at two past events sitting next to one another on a calendar is often like watching a “Seinfeld” episode; you remember both storylines, but it seems almost impossible that they were somehow intertwined.

These misperceptions somehow hinge on the same trick time plays on us more and more the longer we live. The time-warp feelings of adulthood are even more confusing when having to simultaneously deal with our children’s perception of time, the perception we remember so well but can no longer quite identify with. The anticipation of school events, birthday parties and holidays lingers seemingly forever in a child’s mind while we race to get everything done before our preparation clock runs out. Oh, to be able to just sit excitedly with the knowledge that something big is coming.

We can never know for sure what is to become of each day as it passes. We can only hope the ups and downs the year is sure to bring add up to something better than we even imagined. The only way to prepare for such an expectation of the unexpected is to keep an open mind and a flexible calendar.

Shannon and her husband Michael are raising three children in Sylvania. E-mail her at letters@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Family Practice, Shanon Szyperski

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 18th, 2010 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Family Practice.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.