Happy Leap Year! February 29 is a date that usually occurs only every four years. Leap Day is happening this year! For all those born on Leap Day, who spend the majority of your lives with no official birthday, I hope you enjoy your celebration. Happy Birthday to the Leaplings! You finally get to celebrate on your official date, instead of having to compromise. You do not have to be allocated a February 28th or a March 1st birthday this year!
Leap day is added to the calendar as a corrective measure, because the Earth does not orbit around the sun in precisely 365 days. Mother Nature does not conform to a calendar. We need to adjust to her schedule. If this day were not added, our calendar would be off by about 25 days after 100 years. It’s easy to see that as time passed, without this correction, eventually July would be a winter month in the Northern Hemisphere. By inserting this day, the drift is corrected.
Sometimes when situations and challenges happen in our life, we also need to make adjustments to correct our drift. Otherwise, life slips out of sync. Our world can be turned upside-down. We can travel down the wrong road and end up in a place we don’t want to be in. A lot of times, we have to take a leap of faith to make a change or correction to our path. We may need to see things in a different way or move in a different direction. In life, a drift may take more than one day to correct. And the further you have drifted from your original life plan or goal, the longer the correction will take to happen.
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, says, “Creativity is always a leap of faith. You’re faced with a blank page, blank easel or and empty stage.” We are all creators. We are artists creating our experience of life. This experience is based on our beliefs and our faith in those beliefs. We are given a blank page and we get to write the story. We fill in all the details. We are the main character of the story as well as the director and the producer. We set goals and imagine their successful completion. We have a vision. And in that moment, we take a leap of faith in order to make our dreams become our reality. It’s the way we bring thought into form.
For instance, falling in love is a giant leap of faith. Yet we all do it! When we commit to a relationship or marriage we are leaping into the unknown, trusting that our partner will turn out to be the one we believe them to be. Staying in love requires keeping the faith. Even though loving has a high risk factor, it is worth the risk. Ray Bradbury tells us, “Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.”
We all take risks in order to become better versions of ourselves. You may not need to leap off a cliff. Maybe you only need to take a small step to advance. Maybe it’s making a phone call to ask someone for a date. Or updating your resume to find a new job. Or signing up for a class. Maybe it’s starting an exercise program or changing the way you nourish yourself. Take a risk. Leap.
This year, why not observe your celebration of Leap Day with a new perspective? No step is too small. Remember what Neil Armstrong said when he explored the surface of the moon? “This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” A single step in the right direction can be life-changing. It can be a monumental leap. Just like one day every four years is all that is needed to correct the calendar, just one step can adjust the drift. That step can make the difference in your ability to keep your life in sync. Have faith in your wings. Take the leap.