New New Year’s Resolution and It’s NOT Stop Procrastinating

I’ve finally come up with my New Year’s Resolution. Seeing as how it is currently, technically, January 17, it should probably be “stop procrastinating.”

But it’s not.

It’s Pay Attention.

Pay attention to my email and my calendar. Pay attention to the dust under the couch and the dog’s walking. To the book I’ve always wanted to write and the web site I’m building.

Pay attention to my kids, to their rumbling tummies and missing shoes. To their essays and concerts and plays and soccer games. To the things they’re saying and, even more, not saying.

Pay attention to my husband. That’s a big one.

Pay attention to the golden clouds of the sunrise, to the crimson feathers of the cardinal in my yard, to the whisper of the trees over my head.

Hear the songs that might, just might, be drifting down from Heaven.

Wrestle the iPad and the smartphone into their proper places. Release the uptotheminuterightnowbreakingnews for a while. Leave those dust bunnies under the couch in peace for an hour while I put together a puzzle with my son.

Everything in its season.

Focus. Life is fleeting. So fleeting. I don’t want to miss it.

I want to pay attention to it.