It seems like every January I, along with billions of other citizens of the planet we call Earth, decide that it’s time to do something different in, or to, our lives. We vow to make a change, or an upgrade, and whether that means with work, family, finances, relationships or self-esteem, each year we promise to make it better and make it bigger than the year before. I’ve been thinking of this solemn vow, this drive….call it desire and in my head I keep saying it must be the thrust of January. The time when you push and push and push until you reach the point of virtual explosion, or perhaps a literal one, because you just want to keep the resolutions you made on the first of this very new year. Well, I have news for you, it’s too much pressure to thrust into January. I’ve already broken most of my resolutions, but that doesn’t mean I won’t resolve to keep trying.

By the time February comes, those of us who have broken our resolutions become disheartened, we think it’s already too late to try again. Or we vow that February first is when we really meant to start trying. If January was all about thrusting then February might be more about oral. We talk ourselves into doing whatever it is we thought we could do the month before. Or if we pursued January because it was a hot month to feel fresh, in February we start to see the flaws. Which can then lead to abstinence in March. A disappointing cold time of year that we just want to end, and one where abstaining often feels better than trying to do something new.

But then April brings back the spring, both in our step, and the season, and we may feel excited once again. April’s flutters of excitement can last through May and June when we’re happily doing whatever it is we do, but new years resolutions, like they were so long ago, y’know? I mean do you even remember what you resolved to do? By now you’re either in the thick of doing it, or over trying.

Get into the heart of summer and all we’re thinking about are ways to avoid the heat (unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere, then this whole idea I have is probably ass backwards). We want to be naked, free, running around in a commune singing kumbaya…okay, maybe that’s just my fantasy, actually it’s not….although I don’t mind the whole communal living thing, it does indeed sound quite nice. It is after all the doggie days of summer, a time when doggie style comes in quite handy, especially on really hot days where sticky, sweaty body touching doesn’t seem appealing.

By the time September rolls around January is long gone, and so is the New Year. We prep for the end of the doggie days of summer, and get ready for a new school year, another fresh start, and a solemn promise to reinvest in our lives. I’ll call it the squeeze (and release) of September, because we’re all ready to get back into action, and release ourselves from the freedom of summer.

October is fall, and we watch Mama Nature cleanse herself, perhaps a reminder for the cycle that we too will begin (again and again, but most markedly) a few short months from now. And after that, it’s November and December, two of the naughtiest months of the year. With Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and too much to drink at the office holiday party, not enough to drink at your in-laws house, we over-indulge and under-create. So many people tune out these few months. Except when it comes to family, then perhaps we’re too tuned in.

And then the thrusting begins again in January. In and out and in and out all over again.