I’m not much for making big, dramatic new year’s resolutions, but this does seem to be a good time of year to reflect on how I operate in this world and what I can do to improve.

Bob Fox was in town over the holiday weekend. Over coffee and muffins at the Downer’s Mill Deli, he gave me an interesting way to think about my priorities. Let’s say your life is a jar. How you fill it is up to you. It might seem that there isn’t a lot of room in that jar. Who doesn’t feel like they don’t have enough time to do everything they have to do?

If you start by filling the jar with water, you’re going to find you have no room for anything else. But if you start with rocks, you can fill in the spaces around the rocks with pebbles. Then you can pour some sand in there and it will fill in the spaces around the pebbles. And then, finally, you can put in the water and you have room enough. But you have to start with the important things—the rocks. This week I’m thinking about what the rocks are in my life.