Day 25
Lizards do it. Squirrels do it. Even baby lemurs do it. So, I am too … taking a flying leap, that is.
It’s Leap Year Day … so, I’m leaping. I’m leaping at the opportunity for change and a new chapter of my life. I received an offer on my house yesterday and I’m being a froglet and taking that flying leap into the unknown.
And it’s scary as hell!
But it’s also exciting. If all goes as planned I’m to be out, gone, packed, off on my way by mid-April. Eeeeeee!
Lucky for me, it’s Leap Day which gives me an extra day to get my head around this new adventure and get me organized … or maybe I’ll just check it off as a play day and leap into a frappuccino or an ice cream cone or I’ll take a walk with the dog and add some little leaps into my steps. It only comes around once every four years – why not?!
Leap Day … an extra 24 hours … an extra day. Well, it’s not really an extra day just one we stick in to catch our calendars up with our rotation around the sun. It actually takes 365 1/4 days each year to accomplish that feat. What happens to those extra 6 hours that we don’t count? We put them together every 4 years to make up an extra day … welcome Leap Day!
It is said that the Egyptians probably were the first ones to incorporate a Leap Year Day but Caesar was given the credit when it was added to the calendar, way back, in 46 B.C.. And a little known fact … this added day doesn’t really correct the offset of rotation/calendar year as it’s off by about 11 minutes. So, Pope Gregory XIII came to the rescue and decreed that leap year would be skipped 3x every 400 years. I don’t know when we will skip the next one … guess we’ll leap over it!
And though Leap Year Day is to keep our calendar aligned with nature, folk lore states that babies born on February 29th (called leaplings or leapers) are unruly and difficult to raise. Probably because they only get a real birthday once every four years! I’d be unruly, too! And if you are a Leapling … you are one of roughly 187,000 in the United States and one of the 4 million worldwide. Your chance of being born on this day is 1 in 1500 and today, 2012, about 10,000 leapers will join us in the United States. Happy birthday all you Leaplings!
And thanks to good ol’ St. Bridget (an early feminist) some 400 years ago in Ireland love is now associated with Leap Day, as well. At the time women were not allowed to propose marriage to their sweethearts. She complained to St. Patrick about this disparity and he allowed the reversal of proposals – but only on one day and yep, you guessed it … Leap Day was then noted as a day of opportunity (for old maids) and LOVE.
In the 1879 opera The Pirates of Penzance, the character Frederic is apprenticed with a band of pirates until his 21st birthday. When that day arrives he goes ashore, falls in love and plans to marry. UNTIL … (du du du dun) … the pirates realize that Frederic was born a Leaper and (due to the Leap Year cycle) wouldn’t finish his duties until he was well into his 80’s. Poor Frederic had to leave his love and go back to sea. Argh.
Today Ted and his girlfriend, Leah, are actually at the Duke Lemur Center in Durham, NC. I’m not sure if they get to pet these creatures but no doubt they are getting an eyeful of some actual leapers!
So, whatever you do today – leap into it. Do something you’ve never done before – take a leap at something fun. Enjoy these extra 24 hours and well, I say – with only niceness and good intentions – go take a flying leap!