How are you holding up this holiday season? Right at the beginning of December I felt the tidal wave of ad after ad hit the mailbox, inbox, and just about any place it could find to land. I started tuning out to the internet and tv world and instead, tuned in to God more, books, my family, and crafting. Problem solved. I've been enjoying the holiday season and the great, enormous treasure it is we get to celebrate such a great, loving God. I mean, He really loves us, doesn't he? I can see it, just looking at these pictures alone.
Have you heard of picking "one little word?" I believe Ali Edwards is where I first heard of such a thing. The concept was simple. Pick one word you'd like to center your thoughts and life on for the following year. To me, this also means centering my listening, prayers, and worship on my one little word as well. Last year my word was "light", maybe even the year before that.
I have to be honest and say this year I wasn't even thinking about "one little word", like at all. But a funny thing happened. I noticed in my thoughts, reading, reflecting, and listening…one particular word kept showing up. Enough times for me to grab 'hold of it, throw it in a jar with a lid, and watch the word glow back at me, just like a summer lightning bug.
And that word, is slow.
Slow.
Slow.
Slowing down to have time to reach the good, nitty gritty parts of life. The morsels that are always overlooked. To sow slowly in order to reap deeply. This is not a popular idea in our "get it fast" world. Our food is fast, our internet sales and fame..even faster. With the right tools and people and marketing, we can brand ourselves more quickly than ever. Last year I entered January full of ideas and BIG numbers….
while the ideas weren't "bad", I found the numbers game to be quite toxic to my most heavenly projects. My girls, farm, friends, and church community require the best of me. They require slowing down and time. After being at odds with myself, the big numbers and big ideas warring against slowing down, I'm happy to say I'm finally ready to embrace this new year, new way of living, and new thinking.
Slow it is. Slow isn't bad, you know? Slowly evolving as an artist, not a bad thing.
Slowly letting an idea roll around in our head, without a definite plan…..not bad.
Slowly easing into our mornings whenever possible…..very good.
Slowly eating and savoring….wonderful.
Slowing down our to do list to have time for extra hugs, extra talk at the grocery store, extra time for a tight-knit community of friends……slowing down to create something meaningful with our hands, slowing our steps down to notice God did it again with a gorgeous sunset, painted just for our pleasure. Even slowing down my art to give it time to evolve….and be full of the best parts of me.
I'm saying yes to slow living.
{ More on "slow" throughout the year. }
This is really good. One of my biggest desires is to always feel like I am resting in His presence and for me, the only way to have that happen is to cut things out of the schedule and to live very intentionally with our time. We like to move slow from activity to activity. If there is any feeling of urgency or hurry, it usually causes discontent, stress, and raised voices. Not how we want to do things!
ReplyDeleteI've heard of the concept but never really found a word that resonated with me enough to follow through for a whole year - I like your idea of slow though - it ties in so beautifully to mindfulness and all the things that cut out the commercialism and the crazy panic of the season.
ReplyDeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. Just reading your post - I felt a relief come over me. I hate the feeling each day, that I've got to accomplish so much, do so much, mark off my list, move to the next project, etc. I walk by my craft table and I yearn to stop there, but I don't have time :)
I pray that God will continue to put this word before you this coming year. You've got so much to treasure and savor and so much to create, that it needs to be done as you move gracefully through your days.