Each January, the opening of new year’s calendar is a ritual for me. There are the first 31 days of the year’s 365 laid out in neat rectangles topped by some colorful calendar art. Life at a glance … Most
Each January, the opening of new year’s calendar is a ritual for me. There are the first 31 days of the year’s 365 laid out in neat rectangles topped by some colorful calendar art. Life at a glance …
Most children still know the rhyme about which months get 30 or 31 days: “Thirty days hath September, April, June and November …” However, most of us don’t think about where or how we “got” our calendar, or our months’ names.
Janus, I remember from Mrs. Borrego’s Latin classes, was the two-headed Roman god of beginnings and passages. “January” is fittingly derived from that. In the Roman Julian calendar, the reckoning that was fractionally off would eventually make noticeable differences. The discrepancy was corrected by reform in the mid-1500s. The civil calendar reform (Julian to Gregorian) was complete by 1930. Russia and Greece were countries that didn’t switch calendars until the 20th century, with few present-day exceptions (Berbers and Ethiopians).
Going back to my memory of my beloved high school Latin teacher, with all her rules and declensions, what sticks most from two years in her classroom is the marvel of the miracle of word derivations from that dead language. Ranking second would be learning of gods and goddesses, many (except Janus) directly stolen and renamed from the Greeks. Mrs. B could backtrack and wax on about how “calendar” is related to the marigold-like flower, “calendula,” and some other familiar words. Her passion could fire us up to be word detectives. Hot on the hunt for clues, our dictionary searches would soon reveal the etymology, relating to the proclaiming of the first day of a month, a custom in ancient Rome. And that would lead to further clues revealed: how the months were based on cosmic observation, particularly equinoxes, and so forth.
The 2016 calendars are now hung in the kitchen and on my husband’s bulletin board, where he keeps track of his events and appointments. Laptop reminders and a desk planner are also helpful. However, I admit to my preference to see what’s cooking, so to speak, for a month of appointments and commitments charted out on paper, on our kitchen wall.
Our SMU (smart phone user) family members and friends tend to think this is quaint (or maybe “antiquated”). But my overall wall calendar acts as a graph, in a sense, of committed and non-committed time. If it gets too busy-looking, then it’s time to draw in and say no-can-do, thanks, no additions until more space opens up. Just viewing one note at a time doesn’t set off that warning bell that life is getting overly scheduled. The pressure’s off. What needs to be done, I like to think, is accomplished while working with “good heart,” allowing some flow to the time spent — and it truly is “spent,” for you never get time back.
January is already fast-forwarded, following the New Year’s Day celebrations, and the recent Martin Luther King Day holiday and related gatherings. These official holidays are pre-printed on our calendars. Additions of workdays and hours committed to appointments and meetings now appear. Winding like a wili lei through those dates go all else in the way of personal “musts” and celebrations.
Many of the celebrations of our lives, like the holidays pre-printed on our calendars, are cyclical. If you review old photo albums — the kind with stick-on corners, or digital ones — it’s likely you’ll see an annual cycle of record-keeping of all the highlights and ceremonial moments of our lives: the photos of the new baby, the toddler, the birthday candles, school and graduation shots, the weddings and travels and anniversaries, the folks gathered at memorial services. Photographs we treasure are a reflection of the progression of our lives and connections.
Celebrations and ceremonies have always been a part of human life, to mark something of importance. Even the earliest of excavated ancient burials have revealed careful placement of loved ones surrounded by their special trinkets or badges and broaches of eminence. Cave paintings record ceremonies of the ancestors.
The most uplifting ceremonies for us, lately, have been three very carefully planned celebrations of life for a family member and friends. The most recent was held for botanical artist Geraldine King Tam, a Kauai resident for many years, at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens on a glimmering January day. Here was a talented woman who had been a top student, multi-media artist and teacher, and helpmate to her artist husband, the late Reuben Tam. Throughout her life, she made time for a wide spectrum of things, including community service which earned her a “Living Treasure” award in her later years. But she made sure she had time in her days to prepare and eat nourishing breakfasts and her garden’s own yield translated into her gifts of “Tam’s Jams.” She also made time in her days to paint the unbelievably realistic tropical flowers and plants featured in the book, “Paradisius,” while continuing the development of her painting skills to an amazing level of excellence.
When I heard from her niece during that bittersweet celebration of life ceremony that Gerry’s Chinese given name was Chu Lin, meaning “excel,” I felt the message pluck a deep and resonant chord within me. This was a reminder to spend as much time as possible with or in the pursuit of excellence.
Last “Green Flash” notes for January: (a) The mystery photo of Jan. 11 is of the Anahola Stream; (b) I hope you caught a caught a glimpse of all five planets seen by the naked eye — Venus, Mercury, Mars (in the west at dusk), Jupiter and Saturn (rising east, evening and dawn) — were visible through Thursday, barring clouds in the way.
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Dawn Fraser Kawahara, author and poet, lives with her husband Delano in Wailua, “with books and birds.” She keeps writing — poems, manuscript, and ceremonies — as an important focus of her life. You can follow results of her work via www.kauaiweddingsandbooks.com and her regular TGI “Green Flash” column.
