Over the past few days I have been reading many of the other blogs out there and I am inspired by all of the renewal of life evident in the posts. Everyone is full of the feeling of beginning again, and I find myself swept up in this reinvigoration. How refreshing to know this year is just starting; countless possibilities await the months. My fingers are itching to put my plan for life on paper, to take my year in my hands and mold it into something purposeful. That is actually how I approach just about every day- with lists upon lists. Literally, I can make three and four lists pertaining to one event. There will be "to do" lists, calendar charts, idea lists, anything short of a powerpoint presentation. This requires lots of attractive notebooks and pretty paper, because who wants to peruse a list written on some junky scrap of paper? I actually don't know if this makes me more efficient or less because of all the wasted time spent making all of these lists. What I do know is that they make me happy. Go home an make yourself a list today- make it a good one with your favorite pen on some piece of stationary you normally consider too nice for regular information. Treasure your lists, because they really are a diary of your life.
Resolutions have never particularly appealed to me. The idea of a commitment that will probably be broken is hard for me to swallow; I have always been a loyalist. Once I agree to something I will stand by it to the end. But resolutions are always these crazy, impossible feats guaranteed to be left incomplete in some way. Then I came across this definition for Resolution in the Oxford dictionary, and it changed the way i think about resolutions:
determination, purpose, purposefulness, resolve, resoluteness, single-mindedness, firmness, firmness of purpose; steadfastness, staunchness, perseverance, persistence, indefatigability, tenacity, tenaciousness, staying power, dedication, commitment; stubbornness, doggedness, obstinacy, obduracy; boldness, spiritedness, braveness, bravery, courage, pluck, grit, courageousness; informal guts, spunk; formal pertinacity.
I love this! I am going to approach my resolutions with tenacity and stubbornness. What are my resolutions? My tendency toward privacy wants to keep them to myself. But that makes it easy to be lenient on myself, doesn't it? So here they are:
{Be more mindful} of what I am doing. Stop rushing through things. It is all these small things that make up our lives.
{Take more time to really enjoy my kids.} Spend an hour each day doing absolutely nothing but what the girls want to do.- this is harder than it sounds.
{Make movement an integral part of my life.} Although I need to lose weight, I will not put this because I do not believe committing to losing weight ultimately works, because weight then becomes the priority not the change in lifestyle. I would like to require myself to move an hour a day, be it fast or slow, hard or easy. Walking, dancing, yoga, playing tag, pilates, anything that requires me to get up out of my chair and move my body. I believe that when I achieve this goal weight will not be an issue.
{Listen more, talk less}...especially to my children and husband.
{Reclaim my love of cooking}. Often dinner just feels like a chore. I want to slow down and think of making dinner as entertainment. Cooking is fun, and I need to remember that.
{Knit an actual sweater} by this time next year.
{Begin writing letters.} Over Christmas we received over thirty cards from loved ones. David mentioned how much he loved getting things in the mail, and this got me thinking. The internet is great because you can communicate so much more quickly, but I think we lose touch with the fact that letters are a gift of thought. When a letter comes in the mail, I get so excited. Sometimes I won't even open it until I know I have enough time to enjoy it. Think, how many times have you rushed through reading your emails on your way out? SO. I am going to try to write someone an honest-to-goodness letter once a week. Maybe they will write back, maybe not. This is going to be my contribution to the slow-down movement. Lets all slow down a bit. {Stop rushing toward tomorrow, because really tomorrow is a lot like today.}
