Happy new year, friends! I'm so excited to be back here in my cozy blogging corner. My little break was a delightful one...relaxing, peace-filled, and renewing. I read books, baked lots of bread and tried new recipes at dinnertime, enjoyed listening to the rain outside my window in the evenings and going on a few drives on sunny afternoons. I discovered a new show that I am now obsessed with and watched a few old favorite movies that I hadn't seen in way too long. I cleaned and tidied my room and did a bit of redecorating, listened to music that gives life to my soul, and just breathed in the freshness that a new year brings. It was a good, much-needed time off, but all that to say, I am happy to be back!
What better place to start the first post of 2020 off with than a list of goals, right? Well, my "list" isn't actually that, but rather a certain direction that I want to steer my life in 2020...and beyond.
In the last so many years, as blogging and social media have become less and less personal and more and more about numbers, followers and building a platform, it has become trendy and extremely common to pick a word for the new year. I've done this for the past three or four years (I lost count) but decided against that action for this new year. Personally, it didn't mean a thing to me...literally, it had no influence over my year or choices or anything at all. I've come to notice that for a lot of folks (not all, mind you, but most) that this yearly tradition is nothing more than a means of making a blog post or social media post and to shoot up the number of likes or comments or followers on may receive. That just doesn't sit well with me, as I'm growing more and more intolerant of the impersonal and money-making-obsessiveness that seems to be overtaking the blogging and social media world. I'm choosing something different for myself in 2020, and here's what it is...
To live slowly and gently. To live authentically and organically. To live freely and wildly into who I was made to be. I'm saying no to resolutions and goals and lists and all these things I "have" to do. I'm saying yes to slowness, gentleness, authenticity, genuineness, simplicity, and to seeking, savouring, creating and delighting in the beauty and magic of ordinary, everyday life. To the sweetness of smallness and the value of hiddenness.
My "goals" for 2020, if you can even call them that, are to steer my life in such a way that I notice small things in all their beauty, even if it's just the way an old book smells and feels in my hands, or the swirl in my french vanilla latte, or the way the ivy twirls up and around the tall and wide and bumpy tree trunk in our front garden or the gentle sound of knitting needles clicking together as I create a cozy cowl. I want to live slowly so that I don't miss any little thing. I want to live gently so that I can focus on real-life instead of perfection. I want to be formed by beauty in all its many ways and forms and to taste the magic of my every ordinary day. I want to return to the abundant life that I believe I was born to live. I want to embrace wonder again and rekindle my imagination and to be secure in the wildness that it invites me into. I want to live freely, like the wild wisteria that grows in our garden, completely at peace in its design and ways. This is what I want, not just for this new year, but for all my life. And I feel that now is the time to start.
For me, there are several practical aspects to this life I want to embrace. My four things are creating, writing, wandering and reading. Creating for me means many things, cooking and baking, knitting and sewing, taking pictures and crafting, decorating and so on. Writing is mainly done through my blog, though I do have other endeavours that I wish to venture out into at some point. It also means keeping a reading and commonplace journal and a travel journal whenever I find myself in a different place on an adventure. Which brings me to wandering; this doesn't always mean far from home, perhaps more often it means right near to where you already are. This year I hope to visit parks and nature centers and gardens galore, as well as hopefully a small trip here or there. Wandering also means simply stepping out into my own yard and taking an afternoon ramble to admire the beauty set right before me. Spring and autumn are my very favorite seasons and at our home, it is especially true. Summertime brings more mosquitoes than I ever thought possible and in wintertime, I'll admit it can be hard to find beauty in nature unless there is a blanket of white covering the ground. I find it difficult to think that the dead, brown, lifeless branches and grass are lovely, but I try to see beauty even in the dead of winter. And finally, reading...ah, this one is quite obvious. I'm declaring this the year of "delighted reading" and am choosing to read anything that appeals to me, with no boundaries or feelings of guilt or pressure. If I want to read a children's book, then so be it; if I pick up a 500-page classic, that's fine, too. I've even thrown out all ambitions to reach a goal of reading a certain number of books this year. I would, of course, love to read a lot, but I've completely taken any pressure off of myself. It's about the delight and wonder of reading, not the number of books I can shove into my year.
It is my hope to share more on the beauty and goodness of living gently and slowly this year, as well as all the other things I shared in this post. For the first time in so long, I feel excited again, as though beauty is just around the bend. Because I know it is. And I believe the secret to such a life is in living it in a slow and gentle manner, embracing authenticity and being wild and free and fully welcoming the abundance that we were intended to experience. Small things are beautiful and lovely and wonderful. However, a small life is not what we were born for. We were born for abundance and richness, and that means finding beauty in the small things, and happiness in our ordinary days. It means wandering this grand, beautiful green earth to savour and drink up all the wonders it holds. It means immersing oneself into the grand world of books and movies and shows and music that bring life and joy and goodness back to your soul and fill you up to overflowing. That's what a wondrously marvellous life looks like, to me at least. And that's what I crave and desire and hope for and dream of. And it's exactly what I intend on cultivating for myself.
Dear friend, what's on your heart for 2020? Do you desire the richness and splendid beauty that a slow, gentle life offers? If so, you are in good company, for I believe that all those who find their way to this corner of the world wide web are hungering for the same beauty and goodness. You are in the right place and I invite you to stick around because 2020 is going to bring lovely things...
May you live slowly so as not to miss the beauty right in front of you and may you live gently so as not to focus on perfection and rules and strictness, but rather, live into the wild and free and gloriously marvellous life you were created for.
Bless you, dear reader! May you find a kindred spirit atmosphere here and may you be ever so welcomed as we seek the lovely things together...I'm thankful and delighted that you're here!
Happy new year!
♥