Events Dictate to Diary dates!

At this time of year we all should have purchased and started to fill in our new diaries for 2018.

However, not everyone has or uses a personal or desk diary! Invitations, events, times and places may be held in our minds, on scrap paper or deposited with those around us for them to remember and remind us of what to do and where to go!

Conversely, many of us do use diaries in different forms, from the calendar on the phone or behind the door, to the pocket sized diary or a shared family or work desk diary. Meetings, activities, social arrangements and personal appointments are carefully referenced and constantly looked at so as to make sure we are where we should be on a specific day and time.

In having or not having some form of diary or calendar it may reflect our age, approach to life, responsibilities and preferences. We may choose to be organized or disorganized. We may find that we want to be in control or just go with the natural and daily flow of life with all its demands and opportunities.

You may have heard it is said, that if you want to get something done: ‘ask a busy person.’ A busy person is often in a better frame of mind and activity to organize what is required and be around to offer love and support where required.

A person who is not busy or in demand may find that their natural habit is to ‘put off’ what is asked of them. They often ‘procrastinate’ the ‘doing and completing’ of tasks, on their jobs list or in the dairy. Life is lived at a chilled pace and can easily pass them by but so often they are very happy and content within that lifestyle?

When using a diary or calendar we look forward to important functions and appointments. However, just because we put an event in our diaries does not guarantee that it will happen or that it will be a success in the way we desire!

Change can be very traumatic, especially when we incur redundancy, personal or family health concerns and the loss of loved ones.

The Munich Air Disaster is a point in question. Bobby Charlton, as a 20 year old footballer, spoke 60 years ago about the hopes of the young. “They could go about their business confident that when the sun rose in the morning, all their ambitions and hopes would still be alive. The young were immortal.” Tragically 23 people were killed in an unexpected plane crash as they returned home from a football match, with 21 surviving.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster

Events can also include times for personal friendships, work commitments, economic and environmental changes that may alter what we ‘purpose to happen.’ In the reality of ‘events dictating to diary dates’ our ability to reorganize, to accept, to adjust and come to terms with them may be overwhelming or straight forward?

Such changes can increase our stress levels and make us feel out of control. Equally we may find an internal and external strength that brings to us a greater maturity and understanding of what has happened around us.

In an instance we can find ourselves moving in opposite directions from peace to turmoil, from order to chaos, from having a bright hope for the future to a feeling of despair and lack of hope.

In our calendars and diaries we will have times highlighted to meet up with family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues. Occasions for personal and collective socializing, times to be still, to come aside from the routine and seek a rest and solace from the demands of that life.

In recent days loneliness has been highlighted as a growing concern in the UK and beyond for all ages. In our maturing years when we work less and have more leisure time it can cause us to become more isolated if we don’t have a circle of good friends around us. When we retain friendships it strengthens us to navigate the ‘business and quietness’ of life. Also having a personal faith enables us to ‘anchor’ in the God of all events, seasons and diary dates.

So in entering into the second month of the year may we give thanks for our diaries and calendars that are being filled and may we be able to accommodate the changes that come our way expected or unexpected?

Consider for a moment how you may improve your organizational skills in 2018.

What areas of your life are arranged well?
Why is that so and what does it say about you at this present time?

What areas of your life do you ‘put off’ socially, at home or work?
Why is that so and what does it say about you at this present time?

We welcome the New Year, 2018.
The joy of living and all that it means.
From birth, to old age and the exciting teens.

So events, diary dates we plan them all,
And rearrange them when they change or fall.

Enjoy your Diary Dates.
Graham

For further reading hit the links below for the second edition of my book Blog 51 (October 2020) in black and white or colour