Life is in the Details

One Little Word 2013

I've mention before that the word for this year cozied up and planted the seed in my mind a few months ago. I was reading a book at the time and I came upon the word "savor" in the text and lingered upon it a while instead of continuing forward. I felt a gravitational pull to it, an inner stirring, and took that as a sign. I can confidently say that this word chose me.

Savor

Enjoy completely.

Delight in.

I can't think of a better word for me right now, as for a while now I've been feeling the need to slow. things. down. To hang on to a sentence a bit longer. To linger along the path. To continue to ponder the essence of things, work towards simplicity, and live with richness. To live the length, the width, and the depth of life. To take pleasure instead of rushing to the next big thing. Right now is the big thing. Savor to me, means to discover and delight in the layers of plenty in life.

I will savor the sounds.

I will savor the smells.

I will savor the sights.

I will savor the tastes (yes, nourishing food will still factor large in my life)

I will savor the textures.

I will savor the home that we have created and delight in opening it up and inviting of friends in to play, delight, and (hopefully) experience some savoring of their own.

I will fill my home with only items that I savor. My decluttering project will continue until I'm only left with my essentials. I don't want anything getting in my way of enjoying my space and the space I create for and with the three people of awesome I get the pleasure to live with.

I will savor the places we visit, relishing the place where we are right now in our family. We're at that juncture where our kids are portable and still enjoy our company and want to be with us. This only happened a couple of years ago. Now we can go places with them, be it near or far, and truly enjoy it instead of it feeling like a mad dash to find the sweet spot in between naps/feelings/meltdowns, or having them scream as soon as we step into a restaurant, or instantaneously vomit everywhere just because (ahhhh, the reflux years and also the sensory integration disorder years). Yes we've started deals with the tween phase with our oldest, so eye rolls are common, but this is so much less taxing physically than the earlier years. We also have a keen understanding that in 7 years our oldest will be moving on to her own journey and these next 7-10 years really need to be savored and appreciated, though there will be many ups and downs. We have our children in our immediate company for such a short amount of time. That, alone, is reason enough to choose savor this year (and maybe the next 10 too)!

I will savor and be grateful for all that I have (great family, friends, my health, to be able to do what I love, a safe home, a working car, and no car payment).

I will savor the seconds, minutes, and, hours in my day and will fill the time with activities that I enjoy. Over the past two years I have begun to define and refine how I want to spend my days. This has required me to say no to more things so that I can say yes to what makes my heart flutter. There are a few things on my list this year during which I'll have the chance to exercise my "no" muscle. It definitely takes exercise and repetition to be able to say it without guilt.

I will savor the amazing people in my life.

I really am enamored with the project. Each word that I've chosen has become incorporated into the fabric of my being so that I carry the threads of past words with me everyday. Today I add savor, and also still hold with me connect, explore, discover, nurture, balance, and nourish. They are my mantras and reminders of the life I want to live.

For other One Little Word posts, visit my One Little Word archives. One Little Word was created by Ali Edwards.

One Little Word 2012

My One Little Word for 2012 that will help focus my attention and keep me on the path that I want to travel this year is....

 

N O U R I S H !!!!

There's so much goodness in this word.

This year I will be concentrating on...

• nourishing relationships,
• filling my days with activities that nourish my soul (painting and creating art figures into this in a BIG way),
• cultivating inspiration,
• creating daily habits that allow my creativity to bloom,
• finding ways to nourish authenticity (and saying no to things that don't make me want to scream YES!),
• practicing mindfulness and taking time to notice those little details that take my breath away... the emerging sunset while taking the kids to school, the aroma of my little boy's hair that makes me squeeze him in a little tighter so that the smell can be imprinted on my memory, the feeling of Mike's hand nestled in mine, the lilt in my mom's voice when I call her that tells me she's genuinely happy to hear me at the end of the line, the curves of rose petals blooming so perfectly and curling slightly at the end
• nourishing my body (and those of my family - husband, kids, and extended - and friends) with all sorts of healthy and delicious food (which is SO MUCH FUN for me) so that we can all be full of that good energy and vitality that is needed to make our drreams come true (I have one in mind that I'm working on, which is also a secret word that I have for this year)
• nourishing others by continuing to teach yoga classes and creating some cooking videos to post in this space (maybe even teaching some cooking classes... we'll just have to see!)
• putting in place some nourishing traditions

I feel like having NOURISH as my one little word is akin to inviting a warm, gentle hug into each and every day. And this sounds so goooooood!

The last two year's words (nurture and balance) transition so beautifully into this year's word - it's almost like they are a trilogy - as they all have invited me to do some similar things (declutter, slow down, prioritize) which take a long time to integrate fully. I'm still working on decluttering something each day (okay, *most* days, I'm human!) and though I still have a ways to go until I'll be where I want to be in that area (there's the guest room and the storage area still to go through and these are biggies), but NOURISH will allow me to continue on that project in making my home a place that nourishes me and all those who enter. 

NOURISH....

promote growth

encourage passion to flow

sustain with food or nutriment

supply what is necessary for life, health, and growth

cherish, foster, keep alive

strengthen, build up, or promote

cherish, comfort, cultivate, encourage, foster, furnish, maintain, nurture, promote, provide, supply, support, sustain, tend

I can't think of a better word than NOURISH to hold dear to my heart this year. 

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See more One Little Word posts here.

2011: Balance (layout)

2010: Nurture (layout)

2009: Explore

2008: Discovery

2007: Connect

 

Digital Scrapbook Layout: Balance (One Little Word 2011)

I mde the above digital scrapbooking page last month to give some visual weight to my One Little Word for 2011: BALANCE. Although this is a photo of me working on my physical balance (gotta love that self-timer), which I've been more consciously focusing on than in the past (still working through some challenges from my foot surgery ~2 years ago), this year's journey hasn't only been external. The decluttering I've been working on in my closets, on my calendar, and in the people I choose to surround myself with has helped to not bring forth a more minimalist look but it's also helped to achieve some inner peace which spills over into allowing more time and space to other things. Sometimes those things are the gifts of stillness. Sometimes those things are the gift of time to fill with things that I really want to do (instead of the things I think I should do). I have been enjoying LIVING with this word so completely and have seen the profound results of doing so, that this word has become integrated in me, is a part of me, and is now a natural extension of who I am going forward from this day. I'm not sure why this OLW experience has felt different this year, all I know is that is has and for that I am grateful.

I've already started giving thought to my word for next year. Have you?

Click here to read more about Ali and her OLW (One Little Word) project.

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I'm back from vacation and enjoying getting settled into the regular flow of life around here again. It was so nice to be away (and so nice, still, to be back home). I feel especially rejuventated in the creativity department from this trip. It might have something to do with all the colors and creativity we soaked in at all the Orlando theme parks we visited, or having brought some art supplies with me and allowing myself the freedom to create whatever I felt like without any judgment (we can be our own harshest critics, so it was nice to silence that inner voice), or spending time with some pretty amazing people, or it might have been spending so much time outdoors and all that fresh air. Whichever it was, likely a combination of all of the above, I'm so delighted that it's here. I invite it to stay a while in case the universe is listenening and taking requests.

I wanted to sleep in yesterday morning but found it just fine that I could keep my mind from waking up and running at full speed at 6:05am. I fought it for a few minutes but it was no use and I woke up and found that no one was awake yet (a rareity, since Ryan is usually up playing in the art room by this time) so I tip-toed downstairs for a couple of hours of uninterrupted painting time (with the new Mylo Xylito songs on repeat - I'm IN LOVE with the songs and music on this album). I worked on a sketch and an underpainting of a funky lotus flower. Today or tomorrow I hope to start adding some depth and dimension. Good stuff!!

*Some* of the to-dos on my list today:

• workout (Check! - did Athletic Training this morning.)
• pick up Ryan's winter antiobiotic (they have him on rotating ones starting a few weeks ago all through the winter, this time doing a new one each month, so we'll see how that goes)
• meet up with lunch for friends: if it's Monday, it's lunch at my favorite Indian buffet (Chana masala, here I come)!
• get Project Life up to date (photos have been printed, just need to write a few notes down)
• pick up lawn bags (because my neighbors probably can't stand looking at my shriveled and blackened basil and tomato carcasses)
• move a storage bin and my old business clothes out of my closet
• find a drop cloth to put down in my art corner so I can get messy with my paints and a spray bottle of water
• get Mike to figure out why my second EHD seems to have crashed too (he checked my primary Time Machine backup yesterday and already concluded that it crashed). This second one is one of our photo backups and my digital scrapbooking supplies backup. :-(
• upload my photos to our family server since I seem to be exploding my backup drives at the rate of one a day. Eeek!

One Little Word for 2011

The visual above is from http://www.visualthesaurus.com. It provides a cool view into words and connections.

In a quick twist, yesterday I added another word to the list of considerations for One Little Word 2011: balance. I honestly didn't have the word 'balance' on my short list to begin with because I thought that I had already picked it for a previous year.  After doing some digging around on my blog I found that I hadn't already chosen this word. 

The other two I was deciding between were nourish and enrich. I absolutely love these words and could live with either of them for next year (and they both would be fitting). So it's been a tough decision. I thought about choosing all three and focusing on one word for each third of the year, which is so like me. No, not in the indecisive of that - because I am indecisive - but in the pushing the limits of the rules or scrapping them entirely and making up my own. So believe me when I say that the thought was intriguing! But there's something so focusing about choosing one word. There is beauty in the simplicity of choosing only one word.

So after some more thought I have decided...

My ONE LITTLE WORD for 2011

BALANCE

....Creating a harmoniously integrated whole. This will be a steady reminder for the year ahead. I also appreciate that balance is both a noun and a verb. I especially like all that it invokes: equanimity, stability, composure, harmony, equilibrium, proportion, harmonious arrangement, symmetry, poise, adjusting to make things more balanced, composition or placement of elements of design, calm, strike a balance (compromise). What a great word to focus on for 2011!

 

One Little Word In the Rear View: A Look Back in Time

2010: Nurture

2009: Explore

2008: Discovery

2007: Connect

I have tons of energy and so many ideas swirling around in my head that it's hard to keep up. I've done a bit of sprucing up on the blog. In addition to being able to sign up for my newsletter, you can also visually see my available online classes. I've added a class photo and link for the ones that you can sign up for in the right sidebar.

Thank you Typepad for helping me with the custom CSS so that there is no longer an icky grey border around all my sidebar images (my HTML skills weren't working so I knew I needed some help)! Look for some more changes soon! 

Digital Layout: OLW 2010, kitchen garden, & more

I did a quick page scrapbooking page yesterday afternoon after taking an unplanned 2-month break from it all (during which I was immersed in teaching my Wellness Journey class at Big Picture Scrapbooking which has come to an end). The journaling is taken right from this blog post about my word for this year. It felt good to play with color/design/words/photo and make another page for our albums. I've already started working on two more that I plan to do a little bit on today. YAY! 

As I was browsing through my photos since the start of this year I realize that I am taking a whole lot less photos of the people in my life... though I seem to be going through a food phase because I have gazillions of photos of the things I've been cooking up in the kitchen. As I was showing Mike he pointed out that the food sits still long enough to HAVE its photo taken and lately our kids haven't been doing that. Then we added that food doesn't have tantrums, or get moody, or talk back, or have any attitude issues. The kids, while wonderful, have been perhaps a bit more tiring lately. It could have to do with me being sick and now I think Jessica's getting sick... either that or we've entered the tween stage. Not sure yet but either way, it's nothing we can't get past. (But still.... it's tiring!) I think we are all ready for spring to arrive so we can get out of the house and play more without being absolutely freezing.

This morning when I woke up way too early before the alarm went off I realized something: shouldn't I have started my pepper seeds already? Why does one awaken thinking of seed planting schedules at all? II have no idea but on to the today's TO DO list that goes (along with giving some love to the science project basil that is looking very sad and neglected - it needs to be in a larger pot and given some nutrients). I will wait two weeks on starting the tomatoes but it's definitely time to rock-and-roll on the peppers (and, sure, I'll put also do some cool eggplant even though they DID NOTHING in the garden last year... seriously, EGGPLANT, you put on a PATHETIC show this past season in the garden!). I already start daydreaming of picking ripe purple, red, and orange bell peppers and kicking jalapenos from the garden! YUM!

This morning's workout is COMPLETE (see my March workout rotation here) and the core work was GREAT too! Doing something FUN and completely different from cycling was just what I needed. This morning's card consisted of a step aerobics premix. I haven't done step aerobics before this month in a LOOOOONG time. Years! I had never done the core premix before and it ROCKED! I think my obliques will be sore tomorrow for sure. 

One Little Word 2010

 

I started this post on the second day of the year and have taken a break from blogging since then so hadn't made the time to post it. I love the new beginnings and I am someone that has always loved the new year and the opportunities that a fresh slate brings.

Over the past few years I have joined Ali E in choosing "one little word" for the new year. Choosing word helps to simplify things and helps bring clarity and focus on the intentions for the year. Last year my word was EXPLORE and it was appropriately awesome for the flow and adventure of my year last year. I had an amazing time exploring more of my passions like cycling which let me truly explore my capacity, my strength, my limits, and to literally explore the world around me powered by my own two legs. A whole new world opened up that I am in love with and can't wait to get back out there when the weather warms up.I asked many questions of myself and towards the end of the year I had many answers (or more accurately and honestly... less questions. LOL!).

This year my word is NUTURE. I chose it a few months ago and have been trying it in on since then and it feels like a perfect fit. It works completely with so many things that I have planned for this year that no other word seemed to work as well. 

This year will include

• nurturing the relationships that I have with Mike and the kids
• nurturing some existing relationships that need tending and other relationships that I'd like to see come into being (including opening our home more to people we want to get know better). This includes my Bake | Give project which has been going very well and I hope to write more about soon. The nurturing of relationships also includes accepting and letting go of some relationships that no longer work.
• giving attention to some new ideas for the future that are in their infancy stages - so they definitely need nurturing
• my mind and body by doing yoga more regularly because it always feels so good and I always wish I did more of it
• nurturing a clearer mind and house with doing lots more of LESS so I have energy and vitality to get to the essence of things. Less stuff, less busyness, less of saying yes and more of saying no to things that zap my energy. I don't like crowds and big gatherings and I'm finally realizing that this is who I am - and always have been - and it's completely okay. I much prefer smaller gatherings where I can really focus on the people I'm with.
• giving back: because I can and because how can I not?
• not making things more complicated than they need to be
• doing some more things that I enjoy to do (instead of things I feel that I should be doing) - both personally and business
• creating a nurturing and relaxing environment at home
• nurturing my passions and ideas on where I want to go from here which will include making more time for some professional certifications that I want to obtain, a few months of focus on photography again, more time for writing, and continuing the cooking education that I am getting from cooking my way through some of my favorite cookbooks by Deborah Madison and Heidi Swanson (this has left painting for another time and this was a good decision for me right now)

See more about picking a word of the year to focus on here.

Today: I have been completely craving soups lately. I think I would make or eat a soup every day if everyone else around here was game with that program (along with some fresh bread or salad). Green Soup, Butternut Squash Soup, Lentil Soup with Vegetables, Broccoli Cheddar, the list goes on and on... it's all GOOD. No, DELECTABLE and soothing! Soup is true soul food.

All the participants in my online BPS Wellness Journey class are AMAZING. There are so many people making great commitments to their health and working so hard at creating a better life for themselves. It's been inspiring to hear about how they are positively affecting their spouses, friends, and kids too! I am so proud of them and it's wonderful to get to connect and meet so many people through this class.

I have my seed catalogs out and am going through what I have to see what I already have plenty of and what I need to buy (either for restocking or to try new varieties). I am going to grow a bunch more herbs this time around including salad burnett, lovage, and chervil.

Currently I'm in my last week of a 3-week (mostly power) yoga rotation that I created for myself... which feels fully nurturing and is helping my body lengthen and flex to the new demands that I am giving it. I am alternating between some DVDs that I have: Daily Energy Yoga with Shiva Rea, Yoga Shakti, Yoga Short Forms, and Bryan Kest Power Yoga Vol. 1-3.

A big shout out to Mike (not to the Genius at Apple who wouldn't even check the innards of my MacBook Pro), for fixing my computer that's been acting funky for two weeks. He rocks!