I used to hate Tuesdays. Truly. I even wrote a short story about it once (and no, it really wasn’t that good).
But it isn’t a day that exactly lends itself to excitement or new beginnings. Here we are, one day into the week, where you can’t even say that you’re halfway through, nor are you starting fresh. Monday, after all, may have soiled it. And it isn’t until tomorrow that you can keep reminding yourself that it’s “hump” day, and you just have to make it through before the downhill stretch…
Nope, it’s Tuesday. And the Tuesday after a holiday, no less. After New Year’s even, when you’re three days into the year, back at work, and already you’ve messed up your resolutions of exercising, keeping the house clean, and being thankful for at least one thing every day, etc… etc…
This is sounding a bit more downhearted than I’d originally intended.
Let me start again: I used to hate Tuesdays…
But Today is a Brand New Tuesday. It’s the First Tuesday of the year. A clean slate, a fresh page, a new document – whichever your era. And there is no need to let it carry the weight of any other Tuesday before it. Or Monday, for that matter.
If I look outside this morning, I see a few inches of freshly fallen snow, frigid and barren perhaps, but barely covering last night’s footprints. And even though it’s Tuesday, I want to run outside with our pup and make new footprints to disguise all the old ones.
If I write out my To-Do List for the day, it includes a lot of the same things as any other day: dishes, laundry (again?!), and supper plans. But it’s a New Tuesday, and today those dishes will be the result of a freshly baked batch of chocolate chip cookies, and those supper plans will include a new recipe I’ve been wanting to try from my latest cooking magazine.
I love beginnings, and always have – new notebooks, new friendships, new seasons – especially spring. But as beautiful as it is to start off fresh with a New Year in celebration with our nation, I think we sometimes put too much pressure on this collective, once-a-year only, press start kind of day.
Because I think that should be every day. Even the Tuesdays. Especially the Tuesdays.
Because it’s the ordinary, mid-week Tuesdays that bring the unexpected flowers from a spouse, make new recipes from scratch, and push us through our challenges to keep going, and reach higher. Even when we’ve already messed up, or feel we’ve failed in our resolutions.
These are the days we need to realize that we can still start over, that we can learn from what we’ve already done, and are still trying to do. Whatever it is, progress and plans and appreciation do not grow with January firsts or blank notebooks; that is for crumpled papers, mid-year disasters… and Tuesdays.
Remember, I used to hate Tuesdays. But I’ve never had this one before.
So Merry Mid-Winter, and a Happy New Tuesday, to you all.
