Leap Day!

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.
     - Cynthia Heimel

     Every four years we are given a gift of an "extra" day at the end of February. Our planet Earth's rotation about the sun is just irregular enough to warrant this gift. It has always seemed an odd thing to me-- nature seems so orderly otherwise, at least in how the days and seasons are arranged.

     The scientists (if that is indeed who they were?) of long ago arranged the calendar so that this extra "make up" day fell at the end of a very drab month. The gift of an extra day in February has always seemed like getting socks for Christmas to me-- practical, but very, very ordinary. Why not an extra day of late spring in May or early summer in June? Or glorious autumn in October? Falling as it does this year, on a Wednesday in the middle of a busy work week,  in wet, gray weather, it is feeling very much like not much of a gift. Socks.

                           

    Or is it?  Like all true gifts, it is given without the input of the recipient. It just appears, every four years. What we do with this gift is up to each of us. I find myself thinking this morning about the gift of an extra day given to me-- and what I could do with that gift? Or, more to the heart of the matter, what is life all about anyway?

     I can't answer that for you. If I am lucky, perhaps I can for myself. For me, life is about making a difference and spending time with those I love. I would like to think the world is a better place because I was in it... that is the test I'd like to answer to when my life is over. There are so many ways to try to do this-- in relationships, in ordinary contacts with people as I move through the day, in focusing on the people in my life. In creative ways too-- finding ways to make the ordinary special. I find myself overwhelmed with the possibilities of making the day special.

     Perhaps then, this gift of an "extra" day is not so ordinary. Socks, anyone?