Last night, we held our New Year’s Eve lock-in for our youth group at church. We ate, played games, watched a movie, celebrated at midnight, and then slept over in the church building. I bought a pack of 200 soft, fake snowballs, and we had an epic, indoor snowball fight. Then we got out the preschool’s flat scooters to play a version of Hungry, Hungry Hippos in which one person lays on the scooter and collects the balls and the other person directs them by holding, pushing, and pulling their legs. At one point though, my son Clay, who is 14 and 6’2”, laid on the scooter by himself, as well as his frame would allow, and began spinning himself around and around. I told him he was going to get dizzy but took a video anyway. He finally stopped and appeared somewhat winded from the exercise.

When I watched the video again today, I thought about how Clay’s spinning can be like life at times. We feel as though we need to give our attention to everyone and everything. Going in circles but unable to truly give our focus to anyone or anything. We are left feeling dizzy, scattered, and frazzled. Sometimes, life circumstances create this situation for us. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we often impose this on ourselves. We take on too many projects. We overschedule our calendars without including any downtime for ourselves. We still fall for the false narrative that being stressed is the equivalent of being successful. That if we’re busy, we are important and have value. That anxiety is a sign of productivity. That the only pursuits that are worthy are those we can monetize. 

At this time of year, we make resolutions, many of which require adding things to our to-do lists. But if we don’t evaluate our currently crowded lives, we may be setting ourselves up for the vertigo of an even crazier itinerary. Saying yes to something new means less time for something old, and maybe that’s a good thing. But to make that determination, we need to assess our overall circumstances – what stays, what goes, and what is added. Can we slow down a bit to savor life more instead of whirling into a new year? Can we take pride in resting? Can we devote ourselves to family and friends? Can we celebrate play and the pursuit of hobbies for no other reason than enjoyment?  

I think we can. We can reassess our priorities and choose how we want to approach this year. I don’t want to look back on 2024 and feel that it was all a blur. I want to be intentional in the way I spend my time. We can reduce the amount of spinning. I believe in us. Here’s to a Happy New Year in which we become happier people because we are more conscious of how we spend our time and attention, and most importantly, those with whom we spend it.