Staying Awake to Life

My word this year is more active than last year's. Last year I chose Still. This year I choose AWAKE!

I want to stay awake to the moments. I want to wake up and not just dream dreams but take steps to make them reality.

So far so good this year....

I have dreamed of enrolling my oldest daughter in ballet classes since she was about two years old. She is turning eight this week and she and her sister will attend their fourth ballet class.

From the age of five, I have loved reading. I read voraciously through my childhood and when I stopped to take a breath, around the age of twelve, I realized I was also a writer. For years I have dreamed of writing a book. In 2007 I started one. I began to tell a story about a man who experienced heartbreaking loss and  unconventionally learned to love again. That man is my late grandfather. I write in fits and starts, around other dreams, goals and responsibilities. Last summer I was on a roll. This year I dove back in, and finally chose a title, after 4.5 years and many working titles. I emailed a NY Times best-selling memoir author and teacher. I got serious about telling this story.

This year, I want to learn to stay awake to life: to invest in what will help us grow; to continue to capture the moments and the beauty all around; to say YES to life!

Doing it "All" and Doing it Well

Today I'm thinking about how to make time for all the important things in my life. If what we focus on is what we succeed at, how do we spend the time to succeed at many things?

I want to succeed at raising my daughters -- be an intentional mother who helps my girls grow to be loving, secure, self-confident, happy and fulfilled women who love God and treat others with respect and compassion.

I want to succeed at marriage -- I don't want my husband to feel like I don't have time for him or for our relationship. I want to celebrate 50 years of marriage with him, unless death claims one of us first. I love that there are often times when either he or I feel that we are the lucky one. I always want to have that kind of marriage.

I want to succeed at homeschooling.

I want to succeed at interpersonal relationships -- investing time and love into my family and friends.

I want to succeed at writing. This is probably the only thing in my life that is purely for me. Writing makes me come alive; it's my passion. Blogging is one small aspect of this category, but journaling, and writing for publication are aspects as well. This category suffers a lot. It just doesn't seem there's time for every aspect mentioned, but I almost constantly have something in this category on my mind.

I want to learn to be intentional with my time and focus. That when I'm mothering, this is what I'm thinking about and 100% plugged into; when I'm working to help support our household income, this is what I'm focusing on, to make sure I do my best work; when I'm writing or engaging in creativity, I allow myself to truly enjoy it and claim that time for myself, without feeling pulled in other directions or guilty for not using the time to clean my house or be taking care of my other responsibilities.

In the past, I've discovered that the way to "do it all" is to not attempt to do everything every day. I surely can't pay adequate attention and time on all of the categories in my life every day and be intentional and stay non-stressed.

I also know that I can't take on too much. I must be intentional about what I say 'yes' to and what I place on my plate of responsibility. I subscribe to the theory that less is truly more. I refuse to give into our societal assumption that busy = important. I'm plenty busy just keeping up with my responsibilities and priorities without maxing out my planner.

Thoughts? How do you give yourself permission to have time for yourself? How do you create space and time for regular attention to your passions? I would love input in the comments section on this.