Every year I spend a weekend with some college friends. We have a traditional meal together which always ends with, for me, orange sherbet in a little dish. On top there is always a small plastic figure of some sort. It's fun to see what the annual figure will be.

This year my dish arrived with a mermaid. I've gotten the mermaid before along with various animals in other years. But this year she was head down, tail up. Buried neck deep in freezing orange sherbet. We laughed. I pulled her out. I ate my dessert and put her in my purse to take home as I always do. A little memento of another year with my friends, she will sit on my craft shelf until next year's figure takes her place.

But as I put her on the shelf, I stopped. I think she's trying to tell me something. Life isn't exactly orange sherbet but jump in anyway. You might get stuck in up to your shoulders but someone will pull you out. Turn things upside down and be noticed. It's your life -- just dive in!

What to wear? It's a question we all have to decide each morning. Weather, the occasion and how we personally feel make us decide what to take out of the closet. Personally I just can't take too much time for this -- the day is waiting!

One of the great things about getting older is I just don't care whether I am in style or not. I wear what I like and am comfortable in. My closet holds enough clothing, but not a large amount. You can only wear one outfit at a time. But I like my socks. Some are plain, but others... Holidays, stripes, animals, designs. You can find them all. They are unexpected. Not necessarily wild. They make me smile.

My socks are like my life. Comfortable, enough but not too much. The way I like it. Perhaps surprising to others. Something fun and unexpected underneath what you see with a first glance. A way to quickly make a statement in a small, mischievous way. A bit of diversity to combat boredom. Creative freedom meant just for me -- and anyone who takes the time to see my socks.

Electronic devices have not made my life less cluttered. Going through emails, texting, looking at Facebook. I actually have to set aside time each day to do these tasks. Is this really worth it?

What do I really value enough to spend my time on? Junk emails? Mass Facebook postings? Texting emojis? For a week I decided to stop. Do only minimal activity. Have myself a little digital detox time.

What did I miss? Not much really. One important email. Some nice family pictures on Facebook. Still texted those near and dear to me. But I survived.

Guess it's as I suspected. It's nice but not necessary. I'm not severely addicted. Now I'm more ready to skip a day of emails, scroll faster through Facebook, realize I'm not missing all that much. Periodic detox feels good! Try it -- you might like it, too!

I have a large calendar to keep track of events, things to do and current plans. When each day is over, I cross it off. It helps me to stay organized and on track.

But it is also disturbing. As I cross off each day I realize I will never get it back. I hope I haven't wasted it. As each year passes there's the realization that I have a finite amount of days. How many more to go? Do I really want to be so cruel crossing each remaining one off?

Maybe I need to change the way I look at this It's not that a day is over. It's that I was given the privilege of living that day. That I've made good use of it -- laughing, creating, loving, enjoying, doing the best I can. I need to cross off that daily number with satisfaction, not regret. Putting an "X" on the day is really not an act of finality. It should be an act of thoughtful reflection. After all, one small square is insufficient to hold the contents of living a whole day.

I will look at this a new way. But as long as I get to start a new calendar each year (hopefully many years), I will probably keep crossing off the days!