The Line...

It's that time of year.

It's Christmas. Christmas means different things to different people, for different reasons.

For some, it's the storm before the calm of a New Year; it can be the license to let your hair down and your stomach out before starting over; or, even the mayhem before drawing a line in the sand.




That line comes in different forms. It too means different things to different people.
It can be about:

• stating a point beyond which you will not go
• indicating a point where you've had enough (draw 'the line')
• highlighting a time when you're about to change direction, take a different tact; to change
• to highlight something new, bold and adventurous (to put in on 'the line')
• emphasising a point where any further effort is unproductive (end of 'the line')

Yet, I'm not sure if 'the line' really holds it's worth in gold, or sand. It's too easy to forego 'the line' as we frame it for ourselves, or others. While pausing from a cycle (sorry!) beachside this morning I saw a young boy, no more than 4 or 5 years old, drag a stick along the beach. He drew an impressive line: straight, and long. He called to his mum, "Mum, stop. Look!" He jumped from side-to-side over the line, then ran back to the start and did it all again. And again.

His line ended, yet was never-ending. Well, at least until mum got bored and needed her coffee. It was easy for him to make or profess his line in the sand. It was just as easy to step over it, and continue on his merry way.

As we come into the festive season, and the trimmings and trappings and turkeys of Christmas are bypassed for the resolutions of the New Year, what form will your line take?

      Will it be one of action, or of action stopped? 

Will it be one of drive or determination or passion?

Perhaps it will be another case of the never-ending line that fades into the distance, one defined by many and followed by many more? Will you do it because others have, or not do it because other's haven't? Will you follow this line and start again next year, and the year after? And the one after that, again?

Will your line in the sand truly mark a new beginning, or a new ending?

Or, will you - a day, a week, a minor set-back, a month, an injury later - step over your line and wander, walk or run on, back to your old path? And wonder why? 

You may not. But the running gods will.

Be wary, and toe that line!