Starting/ Changing/ Embracing

I've spent quite a few hours over the past couple of days deep in my own thoughts. Thinking about how I spend my time, and my money, and my resources. Thinking about the things in my life that bring me joy, the things that burn through hours of my day, giving me nothing in return, thinking about the things that take from me, leave me with just a little less.

I feel like I might be about to start a journey, and my thoughts keep returning to it over and over again. What do I love? How do I get more of what I love and remove the mounds of mediocre?

The truth is, there is very, very little bad in my life, but there are stretches of discontented ordinary. So I am thinking and mediating on how to make the ordinary a little more beautiful, filled with more love.

And as I think my way through, I know that my first step is identifying the things I love. What is it that I want more of?

I love playing with my kids.

I love when Tom makes me laugh.

I love friends who make me laugh.

I love drinking coffee with my mom and sisters.

I love having people over to my house.

I love taking my kids to new places.

I love when my house is 85% clean.

I love when I cook a really, really good dinner.

I love singing in church.

I love book club.

I love being on the beach.

I love talking to strangers.

I love dancing.

I love walking. 

I love reading.

I love writing. 

I love St. Mary's College and Ocracoke.

I love not too sweet cocktails. 

I love when I take a picture I'm proud of.

I love looking at old pictures. 

I love plants.

I love screened-in porches.

I love when people think I'm funny.

I love cook-outs.

I love frizzy, summer hair.

It feels so good to think about the things I love the most in this world. The list could go on and on and on. These are the things I want to fill my life with, and I want to work on removing the things that don't make me very happy (ordering pizza when I'm too lazy to cook, zoning out on my phone, half-done piles of laundry).

I'm excited to embrace the things I love. This could be a year of some sort of big changes for me, and it feels really good and exciting.

My friend Maggie sent me a link to these guys. And although they are a little too......something, for my taste, they have sent me to really good places in my head. My own version of minimalism might be a slightly more bohemian, Jesus conglomeration, but this is a good start. Thanks Maggie, for inspiring me to think some of these thoughts.

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