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By James Gardner

Clark County Public Library

The recent batch of cold has made many of us feel like hibernating. Still, the weather is already promising warmer temperatures for the days we’ll flip our calendar pages to 2023 and leave the previous year behind. However, maybe I’m getting my nature metaphors mixed up. I’m not feeling the waking-up-from-hibernation metaphor. Instead, I am in a chrysalis, a cocoon where I’m trying to emerge into the new year as a beautiful butterfly who will eat better, be more productive, and generally live my best life.

But the hibernation metaphor has its claws sunk deep in me (which may yet be another mix of my nature metaphors). It is all too easy, especially when the temperature drops or the snow starts to fall, to wrap myself up in my warmest blanket, eat whatever snack foods I have on hand, and mindlessly watch online videos that, being under five minutes, don’t exactly test my meager attention span. Sure, I could blame it on my work. Still, even if I worked a grueling nine-to-five and not in a job where I’m surrounded by glorious books all day, there should be enough time to both decompress and get some writing done or read from those books that are on my ever-growing to-be-read stack (If you’ve noticed this very meager attempt at continuity, congratulations. Or rather, thank you).

One of the advantages about working in a place that’s surrounded by books is that there is plenty of information here that could give me some insight on my current dilemma. Maybe I should read “Tools of Titans” (158.1 FERR) and look for some helpful habits of the ultra-successful. Perhaps I should work the body. I have a small granddaughter who insists her feet shouldn’t be allowed to touch the floor, so maybe I should check out Suzanne Martin’s “15-minute Better Back” (617.564 MART). I also could stand to eat a little better. Perhaps I should avoid gas station Toronados and use some recipes in “The Clean Eating Slow Cooker” (641.563 LARS).

Basically, there are a lot of paths to a better me, and these and other books can help me create a map to that better me. But I might be getting ahead of myself a little bit. Sure, a new year means new beginnings, but self-improvement still takes time. If the Chinese proverb “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” is true, then I should ultimately think about that first step and go from there.

How about this?

Poke my head out from under the blanket. Look around. Stand up and stretch any kinks that might be lurking in my vertebrae. I say to myself, “Yeah, I can do this.”

More than one step? How about “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a few steps in the right direction?”