Happy 2013

Be Still...

This is going to be my "word" for the year (although since it's two words, I hope it still counts!)  Life for me has been going at too fast a pace over the last few months and I feel like all I do is rush.  The rushing leads to not living life the way that I would like and much of the time, I am frazzled, frustrated and exhausted.  My aim for this year is to slow down, just a bit.  I want to focus on savouring the small moments, looking for rest and having fairer expectations of myself.  I know that resolutions don't often get kept but I also think that once in a while, it's not a bad thing to look at life and think about ways that it can improve.  Here are my goals for 2013:

1.  Slow down.  As myself whether I really need to be committing to whatever it is.  Build in some quiet times and block off some time each week to have a time at home with nothing planned.

2.  Pray.  I just finished reading The Year of Biblical Womanhood, which I have been savouring all fall, and that was something that kept coming back to me.  I don't make enough time for reading scripture, praying and reflecting.  My guide for the year is Common Prayer:  A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals which is a fantastic book that I have been using more and more.  I want a daily prayer and scripture time twice daily.

3.  Make time for friendship.  I have become fairly good and making time for my local friends since that it easier to make happen but I have to old and very, very precious friends who live further away who seem to be left behind in the busyness of life.  Kittenpie and W, I am going to work harder and giving you the priority to deserve since you are like my sisters and your presence in my life means more than I ever let you know.

4.  Manage my resources better.  One facet of the rushing thing is that I don't make my decisions very wisely at times.  I want to focus on saving and reducing debt and not using spending as a way to soothe myself (I am a bad impulse shopper) or to make myself feel more like I fit in.

5.  Be more mindful about diet and exercise.  In the frantic pace of life, while we don't tend to eat too badly, I eat mindlessly, snacking too much, eating crap in the afternoon since I didn't put enough effort into making a satisfying lunch and letting myself get too tired so I eat to get by.  We also are doing a farm share and I would like to put more of the emphasis back onto eating our farm share food and seeking out fair trade products and local food and to avoid all processed foods whenever possible.  I was fairly good about exercise in the fall and I want to keep that up.

6.  READ.  I have a huge pile of books beside my bed that I am dying to get through and so many things I have at the library that I want to read.  I want to consciously make more time for reading this year.

So, there you have it.  I'm going to view these as goals rather than resolutions since, once I break them, a goal feels more like something that I can try again.  I hope that you are able to achieve all of the things that you set out for yourself this year and that you are able to be still and enjoy the moments you are given

Happy 2013!