A colleague referred me to a new tax preparer last week. As I sat in his office waiting for my turn, I figured something out. As I scanned the room during my wait, this was not a small office but quaint, my eyes kept coming back to a calendar on a wall to the right of where I sat. It was a calendar with a picture of an old Chevy car on it. The year was 1954 and the month was April. The calendar was attractive. Each time I glanced at the calendar, l thought the year referred to the model/make of the car but it stuck with me. On a whim, I decided to check the dates; I wanted to know the date of that particular day in April 1954. Guess what? Did you guess it? I noticed that the date for the day was the same as it is this month, April 2010. Fascinating!
I Popped up from my chair and walked over to the calendar to look through to see if it was a standard calendar – months of the year – or just various cars of April. I thought it was a cool coincidence. Uh oh, this was a standard calendar of the months and of course the pictures of Chevy cars. Wow! Nothing beats classic cars. It was nostalgic. Daddy had a few Chevy’s back in the day. The last one I remember was an blue, Impala. I especially loved our Sunday afternoon rides into the ‘country’.
Anyway, this calendar got me to think about things.
I have often thought that life and the situations we encounter are cyclical like the globe or the world; it just cycles around or rotates. You know how folks like to throw around the phrase, “what goes around comes around"– for one thing our calendar does. So what is the rotation? Is it 10 years, more, or less? Thinking in terms of the larger world, dynasties come and go with the various rises and falls. I think of William Shakespeare’s poem,
“All The worlds A Stage”, and we are merely players. We make our plans, put our best foot forward, get moving, and get to where we get to in the scheme of things. Do we really learn from past or history? Can we change the pattern even when we re-invent or recreate and try again? Can we only influence outcomes to the degree that the universe allows? Who are we and where do we go from here.
Well I am not giving any answers here but what I have uncovered more clearly and deliberately is that the days and dates goes around and come around again. Our calendar is a function of the calculation and reforms of the earliest methods of telling time. The
Julian calendar gave way to the Gregorian calendar also known as the Christian calendar or modern calendar. There are other calendars like the
Jewish, the
Islamic calendars and others as well. The calendars are calibrated on the rotation of anchor points from
solstice to the equinox. They adjust the days to reflect the rotation and factor in leap years and make other adjustments. This entire business is fascinating to me. Check out the various links.
So The bottom line is this. Every X number of years the days and the dates are repeated. X could be six, 11, or more years in between. This is not a few months starting on the same day or having the same number of days which is a common pattern. The entire year is a mirror image of the other. 1954 and 2010 is a repeat of the days and date of 56 years ago. In fact, according to
Time and Date website, since 1897, this is the 13th return so far of this calendar. Check out the website for other rotations.
If you have a favorite printed calendar, take heart, you do not have to discard it. Just put it in a safe place, break it out, and enjoy it again when it re-surfaces in eleven years, seventeen years, fifty-six years and so on. Isn’t that a great way to recycle – another earth saving tip. As the world turns…!
So, I got my taxes done, well before the deadline, but for entirely too much processing fee. Anyway, I appreciate the referral and the lessons.
I came upon a program that was discussing the effects of holding a glass half full of water for a long time. The scenario was about, oh, guess what? The effects of stress on the body. They were describing the concept using the cliché of a glass half-full or half empty. It really doesn’t matter how one view the glass, the reporter said, because if we hold on to the weight for a long time, as small as it might seem, it will becomes a problem, a burden that can break you down. 
I took the train last week to visit my Mom. There was a poster in the car where I sat that asked; is your heart at risk? Again, talking about how stressed out we are. The poster and the question prompted me to write this down and to think about my levels of risk. The struggles of the job, keeping multiple balls in the air –family, finances, health, parent, friends, children, transportation, safety, environment, you name it. They certainly weaken the chambers of the fragile heart over time – holding on to the half full/half empty glass, whether you realize it or not, is taking a toll on you. All of this is leading to a canary (coronary) as the young child exclaimed. Stress is diminishing our quality and length of life and we must take control and reverse the trend. This warning and caution is all around us. Please stop, take a deep breath and take heed.
I know that this is much easier said than done but take the time to plan and gradually unwrap those ties than bind you to the never ending roller coaster ride. Live, love laugh some more and find a person or place or thing that will give you relief and peace.
