Did you set a New Year’s resolution? I started the year with a few:
- Challenging my habit to over-schedule, so that I could free up time for recharging activities like reading, catching up with a friend, and creative projects.
- Be present. Sort of related to my first goal– I wanted to really make an effort to enjoy life. More often than not, you can find me watching tv, folding laundry, scrolling through my phone, and trying to have a conversation with Daniel. Guess how often I actually enjoyed (or remembered) the episode? Or how many times that resulted in a satisfying conversation with Daniel? Rarely.
Like most people, I struggle with abstract goals so I gave myself a few specifics. First, I would strive to have at least eight “do nothing days” in 2020. I decided for me that meant having at least eight weekend days where I would not schedule a thing, so that I could be free to spend that day however I chose, doing whatever my body needed to feel well. I also decided to take a break from social media (Facebook and Instagram) so that I would be less tempted to multi-task.
So how did I do in January? Well, I did unplug from facebook and instagram on January 5th but didn’t really accomplish much else. I was hoping I would start a regular habitat of blogging. As you can see this is my first post since December, so that was a bust. I hoped I would pick up the habit of reading… well that didn’t take either. I did enjoy a fun weekend in Baltimore with Daniel where I had the opportunity to reconnect with a high school friend. I suppose it’s hard to change old habits.
Things started kicking into gear in February. I spent the first weekend in February away visiting with my friend Emily in Durham, NC. We enjoyed good food, conversation, and everything else that goes with a good girl’s weekend. Since Emily is a big reader (at least by my standard), we talked about books. We decided we both wanted to start reading through our backlog of books on our shelves. I love a good used book sale and as a result have shelves of books waiting to be read. Since we both had the book “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin for YEARS, we decided we would both commit to reading it in February.
I did finish Three Cups of Tea, but honestly found it disappointing. The story jumped around and honestly I didn’t find the Mortenson all that likable. Despite being on the best seller’s list for three years, it had several lawsuits that challenge the legitimacy of parts of the story and the way Mortenson managed the funds to build the schools. In February I also read “Love Poems for Married People” by John Kenney, “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave, and “Vintage Saints and Sinners” by Karen Wright Marsh. All three books were much more enjoyable and definitely helped me rebuild a habit of making time to read in the evenings, at least a few days each week.
In March I re-entered the world of Facebook with one big limitation. I no longer use Facebook on my phone. I simply can’t– Daniel changed my password which he saved only on my laptop. Now that I’m mostly socially distant due to the Coronavirus, I definitely appreciate logging into Facebook a few times a week to get updates from friends and family. As part of my Lenten practices, I decided I will wait to log back into instagram until Easter. I’m sticking with reading, although I’m now reading books with a religious theme through the end of Lent. This month I read “The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming” by Henri Nouwen and I’m in the middle of “A Song for Nagasaki” by Paul Glynn.
Thanks to the Coronavirus I will easily reach my quota of “do nothing days,” as I don’t have a social calendar for the foreseeable future. They say don’t pray for patience, since God simply will give you opportunities to practice it. It seems I have certainly been given ample opportunities to enjoy the simpler things in life. I’m trying to make the most of it by spending time in my garden, reading, cooking good food, and relishing the fact that I love my husband more now than the day we married.
Thank you for reading from a safe social distance 😉
XOXO,
Kari