Happy Second Chances Day!

Tomorrow is my birthday. While others might bemoan having a birthday so close to the Christmas-New Year’s vortex, I rather enjoy it.

You see, my birthday is Second Chances Day.

Let’s say, for the New Year, you vowed to start an exercise program, go on a diet, and start a novel. And let’s say it is today, January 5th, and you have done not one of these things. (This would, in fact, be my exact situation.)

Second Chances Day! It comes along right when you need it.

Because, let’s face it, in the normal course of human events, New Year’s Day is a horrible day to start something new.

There’s the hangover for one. And it’s a holiday. The kids are still home (are they ever going back to school?) and the tree needs to be taken down. There are often New Year’s Day gatherings to attend. Just not a good day for resolution-keeping.

And then, this year, New Year’s Day was a Friday, which meant the next day was Saturday, which definitely is not the right day to be starting anything. The next day was Sunday, and there were the papers to be read, and the Patriots game and Downton Abbey to be watched. No time at all for anything, plus it’s the last day of the week, so why would you start anything then?

What you need is a Second Chances Day, and I am generously offering you mine.

Plus, Second Chances Day falls on the Feast of the Epiphany, when the Wise Men finally got to Bethlehem, so it’s kind of already a day for the tardy and slow-starting.

As long as your epiphany isn’t, “I am never going to do any of these things,” you are in good shape.

So Happy Second Chances Day! Let me know how it goes.