I have many goals for 2020. Actually, I have many goals for my life.
But one of my more focus goals is picking out a word for the year. In past years, I have focused on the words "present" and "savor" to learn how to settle down in the moment and soak in the littleness of our babies, and for the past two years, I clung on to "nourish" to help bring nutrition and life-giving activities in our home.
I don't take my One Little Word lightly. I want it to be the heartbeat of where we are in life and what we need the most. And for that, "simplify" feels right.
Simplify means to rest, to slow down, to eliminate hurry, and to try to get back to the rhythms that enable us to to experience more joy, more peace, and more love. Honestly, that's where we are at as a family.
Though nourishing our family, we said "yes" a lot. We changed up habits and routines, and figured out how to clean up our ingredients in our house and in our food. We made elaborate healthy meals, we nourished our living space with house projects, and we amped up our fitness game. We said yes to friends to nourish our relationships and we said yes at work to strengthen our careers. We said yes when Dusty wanted to go back to school to learn more and we said yes to learning more and more about Lillie's condition and the challenges that it may or may not bring to our family.
And guys, we're nourished except we're also exhausted. We're eating well. Our relationships are thriving. We're exercising, leaning on one another so we can both have self-care, and experiencing different and new things... but we do not feel rested. We feel rushed. And we do not feel like we are thriving. It's more like surviving.
So maybe (probably) we said "yes" to too many things. Maybe we "nourished" too deep in too many places at once. And maybe we need to step back and evaluate. Which leads us into simplifying.
Simplify to me doesn't not mean getting rid of everything, but more so evaluating what is working at what is not. It means that we take a good look at our mission statement as a family once again and purge everything in it that does not fit into that goal. It means less stuff, slowing down, and being intentional for the new year.
So while I have great big ideas and dreams, with some good things in the works, for now, I wanted to share our One Little Word for 2020 with you.
What's your goals for this year?
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