The Authentic Life: How Do You Start a New Day?

Monday, January 30, 2012

How Do You Start a New Day?

How do you begin your day? It's a new dawn of a sparkling fresh new day and many of us begin by worrying about all kinds of little things.

What is going to happen at work today? Will my car break down again? I forgot to pack my kids school lunch. My daughter missed the bus and now I have to bring her to school. I started the morning by spilling my coffee. The microwave has hit the fritz. The dog is whining to go outside. Again. And again.

There are so many things that get in the way of having us start our mornings off right.

And so we wake up, gather what we want to wear for the day and we look at our morning face in the oval mirror. Who am I today? I don't really look any different. But am I? I think I have changed somehow, but I can't see it yet. It's under the surface and hasn't boiled over yet.

And then we think, should I wear the red babydoll shirt with the white polka dots or the green babydoll shirt with the flowers on it? I can't decide. And then do I want to wear a skirt or my slacks? Socks or tights? I pick socks over tights as the tights are always a little too small at the waist and I don't want to deal with that today.

And then if you are wearing a dress to go to work and you put on your nylons, you groan and moan as you notice that huge run going down the lower leg. It's going to show so you take it off and search for a good pair that is going to last at least one more day.

I remember so many times when I would be painting my small runs with some nail polish so that it wouldn't spread. A trick I learned from my mother.

So, once we are dressed and have the day's normal costume on, we head downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat and our morning's wake up coffee. Hopefully strong. But I have never been a fan of black coffee. I need my cream and sugar. And then more and more sugar. No wonder my daughter wants to drink my coffee. It's sweet. Some days, I discover that my nine year old daughter has just drunk half my coffee. And it's going down her little throat.

There's so many mornings that just get so hectic. I have memories of getting all my kids ready for school. I thought that they would always miss the bus. They dragged their feet and were slow to get off the couch, get dressed and make sure that everything is in their backpack. And at night I would be the last one to bed, as I was always making sure that all papers were filled out and lunches ready to go.

And to get them to hold their feet still while I struggled to tie their shoes. Or force on a sock. This was when they were younger.

Now, they are a little more independent.

And then once the kids have hopped on the bus and they are now on their way to school, you feel like you can catch your breath for a moment. Yet, now you have to make the commute to go to work. Face the traffic, get your coffee to go. Spill it on your tie on the way. Have to make a quick stop as someone has run a red light or you didn't see the person in front of you stopping fast. And then you might have to wait for the long train to go by.

And once you get to work, you begin to settle in and become a part of the fast paced work day. And you silently wonder, "When am I going to be done? I'm tired already."

And you wonder where you left your face. Your changed face. It was changing wasn't it. Did you leave it home?

And if you are a writer like me, now you are sitting down in front of your computer screen and you are pondering what you want to write about today. You haven't really thought too much about what it was you wanted to express today. I know I didn't.

I went to bed last night with my HTC tablet that I didn't end up using last night. Sleepiness took over. And I had my brand new daily blog planner by the bed too and I didn't write in that either.

If you don't have a daily blog planner, I suggest that you get one. I was on Pinterest yesterday and saw all these pins for daily blog planners, special blog note paper, and all kinds of other things for blogging. And I thought, "Hey that's a good idea."

A blog planner could kind of be like a blog notebook. Write out each day and write notes. Like: January 30, 2012. Blog more. Write more posts today. And then go on to some titles or ideas. Maybe you might want to plan it out for the whole week.

I think I'm only going to go a few days at a time, as I might want to keep writing in it during the day and I won't know how much space I will fill up on the page. A blog planner could also be considered as a journal. It's yet another form of the days thoughts. Your inspiration.

Maybe you want to write the weeks schedule and have a few topics to write about each day. And then you can go back and make sure you write about those things.

Map each day out and try to stick to your plans and go with your flow. You never know what each day holds. Good things I hope.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 30, 2012