Christmas

There was food. We ate it. Good presents, excited children, lots of happy things. For myself though, I like Boxing Day better. It's calmer, more relaxing. We slept in late, went to the movies, had pizza for dinner. Today we are gardening, though in my world what that really means is half-heartedly planting a couple of things in the vain hope they will grow. I am rubbish at gardening.

I haven't much been in the zone these holidays. All week I have been distracted with thoughts of 2012; I'm not sure why, 2011 isn't done with yet. To get through another graduate year, and three more after that, however, I know I need to be more intentional in what I do and how I do it than I have been. I suppose, in a kind of way, it's similar to gardening. If I don't give the values and goals that matter most to me the time and attention they need, they will likely be smothered by the metaphorical weeds.

Profound.

I like the idea of completing 2011 first, though, and there is a worksheet created for this purpose by Andrea Scher and Jen Lemen that you can download for free here. Rituals are useful. We need rituals. I am going to fill mine out today (sans the out-loud declaration. I am sure people do that and I am equally sure none of them are me), and then I am going to write down what I want out of 2012. After that, I will chop my list in half, and then half again, while lowering my expectation by two-thirds. That will probably put things into the realm of achievable. Maybe.

Hope your holidays have been good to you, and may 2012 bring you whatever it is you need the most.

Comments

[chasinglightningbugs]

beautiful photos
beautiful words
beautiful thoughts.....
and have a wonderful new year

[The Coffee Lady]

I like the after-Christmas far more than the before.

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Events of 2010 pre-christmas taught me not to have expectations of 2011 and it was the best year I've had. So I'm carrying that lesson through. I enjoyed yoru words though. Happy New Year.