by Kat | Dec 29, 2020 | General, Words
I am joining Honoré to close out my word of 2020.
Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen Hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. — Mary Anne Radmacher
This quote has served me very well this year… today, I am not sure if I picked it, or if it picked me. But these words became so important each day of this year. I almost gave up on this word early on in Pandemic Days, but I am glad that I stuck with it and finally stopped fighting it long enough to truly learn something.
December I purposefully lived with intention every single day. And my days included bits of all of Mary Anne’s advice! I listened. I practiced wellness. I played with abandon (thank you AC for really helping in this category! lol) I laughed… so much. I learned some new things this month and as a result knit the best fitting sock I have ever knit!
Perhaps December is the easiest month to “do what you love” but I really leaned in to the joys of this season. I sang along with all the Christmas songs. I nurtured my inner child and watched The Grinch (both the Boris Karloff and the Jim Carrey versions!)
I savored every phone call… the ones full of laughter, the ones full of uncertainty, and the ones full of frustration and tears… and instead of wishing things were different right now, I practiced living as if this is all there is. And while I have always understood that this is living – it somehow clicked in a different way this month. And I realized that those parts… well they are the parts that walk you to the edge. It is not about living dangerously, but rather living fully. I don’t think I would have even begun to grasp that concept in a “normal year” because I think this was the year for truly learning about being intentional and making it part of my life… an integral part.
But the question I have been thinking about for longer than December is where do I go from here. I started this word journey sort of haphazardly. No thought went into the first couple of words. My first word in 2016 was Gratitude (yet I could find no blog posts at all showing that I even spent any time at all learning anything about gratitude) and then in 2017 I spent the year with Joy. There are a couple of posts about that, but still no thought about why I might pick joy. And so, because I just really did not “get” the impact a word could have, I did not pick a word in 2018. However, as the year moved on something curious began to happen. A word started showing up (or maybe I just started paying attention) there were some inspirational emails that talked about it, and there were so many quotes! So I started 2019 with a new word Focus! It was a glorious year. I learned so much. I grew so much. It was exactly what I needed.
Intentional living came to me much the same way… inspirational emails, passages in books, and my focus led me there. So where will Intentional Living lead me? Two words kept circling round my brain – authenticity and vulnerability. They seemed to be the right next step, but something just felt off about both of them. The more I spent time with those words… pondering them… the more unsettled I became. And in November the big answer came for me. Yes those are simply brilliant words and likely a lovely step from Intentional Living, but I knew that there was some heavy work I had to do before I could get to those words. And that heavy work… well, it’s all about release…
release [ ri-lees ] noun a freeing or releasing from confinement, obligation, pain, emotional strain, etc.
Just the thing I have been avoiding my entire life. I am not sure how much of this journey I want to share here, but my hope is to share the process of realease rather than the things being released. And of all people, Goldie Hawn’s words of wisdom will give me some guidance.
“If we can just let go and trust that things will work out the way they’re supposed to, without trying to control the outcome, then we can begin to enjoy the moment more fully. The joy of the freedom it brings becomes more pleasurable than the experience itself.” ― Goldie Hawn
I hope you will continue follow along on this journey to see where it takes me!
Finally, I would like to thank Honoré for hosting us this year!
You can see all of my Intentional Journey here.
by Kat | Dec 1, 2020 | General, Words
I am joining Honoré again this month to share an update on my word.
Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen Hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. — Mary Anne Radmacher
I think I have finally gotten to the part of my word where I have finally “given in” and accepted that this word and this year were just the most challenging companions. Ever.
I had thought that my 37th year was the most challenging year ever (even without a word). I thought I’d never beat a year of Christmas Pleurisy, three wee children getting tonsillectomies (at.the.same.time), the same three children getting chicken pox (again at.the.same.time), and a Thanksgiving Eve Emergency Hysterectomy, just because. But looking back… I think that year was much easier.
November showed me how to “live as if this is all there is” though… I will give it that. And in doing that, I learned about things I don’t need to “live as if this is all there is.” Lots of things. Material things and abstract things. Things I should have physically and emotionally Kon-Mari’d long ago (especially the emotional things!)
Physical Kon-Mari is much easier than Emotional Kon-Mari, trust me. Those emotional things? Well, I did not hang on to them in case they might start “sparking joy”!! I hung on to them because being the martyr gives one a non-starter…that powerful you can never beat this chip!
However, nine long months of Pandemic Life means that eventually, you have used all the cards, every last chip and you have to open a new deck. November was open the new deck month for me. I started the arduous process of letting go of things that I have been carrying far too long, especially in Pandemic Life! So I stand here today finally realizing, after months of avoidance, lots of things I don’t need! And in doing so, I began to see exactly what I do need and that perhaps, is what Intentional Living is all about.
I also spent some time contemplating my “Word Journey” and a couple of words keep showing up and they bring some very curious possibilities. (Maybe not ones I am ready for… oh boy, lol)
So where do I go from here to close out my year? Well, my goal is that at the end of this month I will be able to share that I managed to do all of Mary Ann Radmacher’s quote (maybe not all at the same time, lol) And I think December is JUST the month to attempt that!
How about you? Did you and your word have a good month? Are you thinking about a word for next year? I want to know!
You can see all of my Intentional Journey here.
by Kat | Oct 27, 2020 | General, Words
I am joining Honoré again this month to share an update on my word.
Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen Hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. — Mary Anne Radmacher
October taught me that sometimes in order to practice wellness, one must become adept at diligently avoiding some things. Most days the avoidance list included the internet, cable news, and the some topics of conversation!
October refined my ability to be silent and if that was not possible…well I am honing my change the topic of conversation skills!
Sometimes the thing I was trying to avoid was me…Okay, maybe not me so much as avoiding living in my head too much. Too much time over-thinking and worrying are not things to do if you are trying to practice wellness! Thank goodness for meditation which really helps me break the chain of worry. My typical practice has been to meditate in the morning while I sip my coffee but September showed me that once a day was really not enough so I have added more meditation time in my day, which has been tremendously helpful. I am also finding that the process of writing my worries/struggles/heartaches down means I don’t have to dwell on them. It is a learning process and as the month progressed, I found it easier to do. And while it is not perfect, it is helping.
What about you? How did your word show up for you?
You can see all of my Intentional Journey here.
by Kat | Sep 29, 2020 | General, Words
I am joining Honoré again this month to share an update on my word.
Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen Hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. — Mary Anne Radmacher
September was such a hard month. And that sentence is such a damned understatement, but I honestly have no words for how hard it was for me – even with a weekend away!
I thought that I was a pretty good manager of stress… oh boy. September showed me how I am managing nothing, and it is managing me, and it has been all along, if I am being completely honest with myself. Maybe I was just better at ignoring it.
One would think that 8 months into this insanity, I would be used to the mind-numbing sameness of the days. However, the reality is that 8 months in to this pandemic the “fake it till you make it” well has finally run dry. Instead September woke me to the malady known as cabin fever. Foolishly, I would have sworn I had experienced it before being snowed in a time or two, but no… being snowed in for a day or two, or maybe even a week ain’t got nothin’ on Pandemic Cabin Fever.
The things I can choose these days are not the things I want to choose, that is for damned sure! And so in September I chose to be absent from lots of things. Which, in light of my very bad attitude, is probably the smartest decision I made all month.
I would love to share with you that while I wallowed in the Sea of Self-Pity that I had some epiphanal moments resulting in a dramatic change of attitude. Nope, but what I did learn was that it was okay to not feel good. To not feel happy.
And that is okay.
You can see all of my Intentional Journey here.
by Kat | Aug 25, 2020 | General, Words
I am joining Honoré and friends again this month to share an update on my word.
Let’s start with my guiding quote, one that has served me well each and every day!
Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen Hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. — Mary Anne Radmacher
Eight months in and I am *finally* starting to see intention in a very different way. A way that I might never even considered in “normal living” times. I have stopped fighting with my word. I am no longer wishing for a different word. I am no longer feeling like intention is beating me down but rather, it feels like I have made peace with my word, it is lifting me up, and I have opened myself to learn where I can go with it.
So how’d all that happen?
Well, for starters…the overwhelming lack of “normal living.” No normal living chaos or over-packed lists. The daily idea that more is so much better has really no space in Pandemic Times. And with it goes all the “more” things. More wardrobe. More shopping. More sewing. More knitting. More. More. More. More. and yes, even more more.
But in Pandemic Times, I have found that more has an entirely different meaning. As in…
Yes, absolutely more texts/phone calls/FaceTime with family, but my days have also been…More thoughtful. More creative. More realistic.
And included…More quiet. More reflection. More decluttering. And more less of so many things. And not missing any of them!
More intentional!
I think that is the biggest thing that struck me this month. All those things from lists, the feeling of never doing enough, the need to be more, to go more…are all entirely unnecessary to intentional daily living and they did not fill me in a meaningful way, they just made me feel busy. I am laughing at myself at all the things I signed up for so I could “do less” which, in reality, just meant more things on a list… yep, I have let them all go. And it has been so freeing!
Learning to let go of all the noise has been a learning process, but eight months in I feel like I am finally getting it!
You can see all of my Intentional Journey here.
by Kat | Jul 28, 2020 | General, Words
I am joining Honoré and friends again this month to share an update on my word.
Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen Hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. — Mary Anne Radmacher
I am discovering that living intentionally in Coronavirus Times can be more steps backwards than forward. July was one of those months. In a very big way.
There were so many steps back (I shared a bit here) and it felt a bit like a month of failure. But as I look back and contemplate, perhaps that is not one hundred percent true. I found that my day was a bit like filling buckets… time spent filling my meditation bucket, time spent reading, time spent knitting, and the largest bucket of all… my garden where I spent oodles of hours watering, picking, and tending…in the 900 gazillion degree weather. My garden truly needed my attention and it was an excellent diversion.
But I also intentionally ignored many things…the internet and my PC topped that list. I learned that living with intention means stepping back from things that are not good for you…finding a new rhythm and breaking the cycle that was fueling my stress. All that was surprisingly easy, which is shocking to me – who knew I was so good at avoidance! Haha! I think August will be another month to avoid those things that are stress-inducing.
No big “ah-ha” moments, but a series of small “oh!” moments worked for me!
You can see all of my Intentional Journey here.
