So today is the day. Marked on everyone's calendar with a big red circle, a sad face, or perhaps a skull and crossbones. Today is the day that evens the score and puts every red-blooded American on the same page. When we all dig deep into our pockets and hopefully find enough there to pay Uncle Sam what he is due.
The theme of taxes has been a particularly strong one in my life as of late. It doesn't help that I work in an office that prepares taxes for approximately 400 clients. Each day of the official busy tax season brings in a new person every hour, and bags upon boxes of paperwork that supposedly sums up what that life is worth in dollars and cents. It can be exhausting just taking in the anxiety on each face.
Yet at the same time, all this talk about 1040's and Schedule C's and deadlines and such has got me thinking about taxes in other areas of life. Taxes on the body, mind and spirit can so often be more intense than those on the pocketbook. Wouldn't it be nice if our lives worked the way the IRS does? If we only had to pay out headaches and heartaches once a year? If we could just receive a one page summary in January that itemized our successes and failures, then file it away for another 364 days? And what if we only had to take one quick glance at the 1099-like form detailing the hurts we've received...not to mention the other one detailing the hurts we've dished out to others.
Paying taxes creates such a panic in just about everyone. But maybe that's because of the all or nothing nature. In thinking more about it, the physical and emotional things that tax our lives would probably kill us if paid out all at once. Though it's often hard to find, there is a fine balance of good and bad that keeps us afloat just long enough to get us to the next piece of driftwood. I guess this is why God promises His grace is new every morning, because we need it just as much each day as the day before.
I was just telling a friend recently that I wish I could take a good long nap and wake up to find everything ok. That would be so much easier. But the truth of the matter is that nothing great was ever accomplished the easy way. The changes and progress only come as a result of the work...the tedious, tiresome, backbreaking work. Whether it's losing those last 15 pounds (yes, that's what's left at this point), maintaining that small business, nurturing meaningful relationships, whatever.
Yep, we all have to pay our taxes. In some respect, it's a comfort to know that's one way we're never alone.
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