Lost time is never found again. -- Benjamin Franklin

Additional message I added to a calendar
a couple of years ago.

I LOVE the start of a new year.  

Maybe it's because my birthday is on the second day of every new year and I look forward to another year of possibilities, adventures and unexpected delights.

TIME intrigues me--the way it appears to be ahead in lavish, copious amounts and then somehow vanishes in front of me like this week's snow in today's bright sunshine.  

I try to keep track of it, mark it, claim it, document it in my numerous diaries, journals, Morning Pages, and importantly, my annual calendar.  Each year I begin my search for the upcoming year's calendar in November.  I don't know what it will look like other than being about 7 inches wide and 8 1/2 inches long and having a spiral back (which enables it to lie flat easily.)

Over the many years of keeping a calendar, I have moved from the basic entry-level daily schedule to the leather-bound edition with the year embossed on the front cover.  I have had schedules filled with photographs of famous paintings and quotations from clever people.  I've had schedules with beautiful artwork and esoteric messages.  And, I've had editions with new words to learn each day and funny cartoons.

Years of annual calendars fill my shelves with documented time.

As I mentioned, other than the basic size and spiral back I don't know what it will look like- but, I always know it when I find it. 

There's something about it that just feels right and it is with confidence that I buy it and begin to fill it with appointments and plans waiting to be placed into the upcoming year.

So it was again this year when I found the perfect calendar for 2016.

 I liked the color, the cover message and all the motivational and inspirational notes attached to each week throughout the months. So I began to fill in due dates for art to be delivered and retrieved for the galleries of which I am a member along with a few appointments for teeth cleaning and hair trims.  I carefully blocked dates for travel--and, that's when I turned the last page of June only to discover that July was missing! Instead, was another month of May!!!

What happened to July?  What am I going to do with TWO months of May?

Flummoxed I sat stunned for a moment or two.  In ALL THE YEARS of keeping schedules and calendars I had never encountered one with a missing month and two of another!

What does a year with two Mays portend?  Should I be skipping July this year?

It got me to thinking about the Merry Month of May with its graduations, Mother's Day and Memorial Day and birthdays for both of our fathers. There was the opening reception for the Garden Show which showcased my driftwood sculptures and a spectacular trip to Cape Cod with friends. We attended a dance recital and a wedding.  We watched kids play soccer and I photographed the early wildflowers blooming in the Rocky Mountains.   

Wild roses bloom fragrantly in the mountains in May.

  "The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit."
      --Thomas Malory




May 2015 was great!  I loved May.  But, July was pretty nifty, too.  We celebrated Independence Day in the mountains, test drove new cars, selected Ken's new phone, photographed a 100-year-old barn, visited with lots of friends who stopped by while in Colorado, splashed in the Cache la Poudre River with Molly and began our house staining project ourselves.

Garden roses fill with July's summer light.

  "My life, I realize suddenly, is July.  Childhood is June and old age is August but here it is July, and my life, this year, is July inside of July."
    --Rick Bass

Suffice it to say, even though I would describe myself more as a WINTER person than a SUMMER person, I still wanted to have a July, 2016.  Honestly, May was terrific but one month of May was enough because June was fabulous and so was July.  I would have missed a lot without a July. I wanted it back.  

So much for THE BEST IS YET TO COME.  I want 2016 with 12 months--including July.  

So, it won't surprise you to learn that I went calendar shopping again this week. Remarkably, I found the exact match to my 11-month calendar only this edition has a ballet pink cover with a gold heart--not exactly the cover I was looking for--but it still had ALL the weekly inspirational and motivational messages and all 12 months--including July!

Molly and I trudge up the street for another sledding run.

"How did it get late so soon?  It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June.  My goodness how the time has flown. How did it get so late so soon?
   -- Dr. Suess

How can one not be filled with the joy of sledding on a sunny winter day?