There are some things I can easily forget. I’m not always with it when it comes to carrying out errands.  I was working out in the garden some time ago when Georgine called and asked me to attend to something before coming inside.

Now I fully intended to do that, but for some reason it slipped my mind and I was back inside taking a well earned shower when I thought, oops!  Better get dressed and go attend to that before Georgine wakes up I lost the plot again.  But on the way out the door a voice behind me said, “I’ve already done that!”  I just hate it when she catches me out that way!

I can sometimes forget appointments too.  Not often as I’m one of those organizational freakazoids.  I remember my cousin Bet inviting us over for lunch one time.  There was to be a meeting of the clan and that’s something I like to attend, so I marked it on the calendar and repeated it over several times to fix it into the one hemisphere men are reputed to use when they’re processing information.  I even checked it out on the calendar the day before.

But guess what?  I got side tracked on the fateful day itself, and to add insult to injury stopped over at one of the functions we were attending and had lunch there.  Now my cousin Bet was rightly peeved and I’ve been doing penance ever since that day.  It was a magnanimous act for her to invite us for Christmas lunch the year after that, and you can be assured that appointment was not forgotten.

I’m a little better when it comes to special days like Georgine’s birthday, or our anniversary.  I’ve watched with alarm some of the major catastrophes other men have encountered when they forgot their wedding anniversary.  Not only do I have that appointment squirreled into my diary, but my mobile phone and computer scream warning notes days in advance, and keep it up until I assure them all is well and the customary gift has been placed where it should be; in Georgine’s hands

What about jobs around the house?  Well I think I’ve already covered that, but have to admit there are some I’ve been systematically forgetting for a long time now.  They’re really not on my top of the pops list.

Now we’re rapidly approaching the end of the year and that’s the time to sit down, take stock, and make all those resolutions everyone tells us have to be made, which I probably will have just as hard a time keeping in 2012 as I did this year 2011.  But there’s a few things I need to forget as well as many things to remember.

I need to forget my bad experiences. Every human being endures these from time to time, and it’s easy to let those experiences eat away at you to the point where you become suspicious of the motivations behind every approach you encounter. I need to put those experiences behind me and move on.

The same goes for insults and gossip.  I need to learn to make allowances for others having a bad hair day or whose life is the pits.  They may need to get it out on somebody so they can untangle their frustrations, and if it makes them feel good to hit out at the one on their immediate horizon, and that happens to be me, let it go by and smile Ian.

What about your new-year resolutions for 2012?  Got them in the too hard basket?  Come on, get with it and make your list now!

“© Copyright Ian Grice 2011, all rights reserved”