Are We There Yet?

 

For a LONG time now, I have realized that I have needed to consolidate my two blogs. Yes. The person that cannot keep up with ONE blog has two. Actually, I have three….but let’s just pretend for now that it is two. I even changed the name of this blog from Stormy Hen Creations to Stormy Hen Living for the purpose of consolidating them. Then I never did it. I sat down many times to write the post, and just didn’t. But today I am just going to do it! And here we go:

I have to remind myself often that life is a journey, that I have to slow down and enjoy the trip. You know that old saying: The days are long, but the years are short. Well, even my days are short. I know that I have a tendency to live life on auto-pilot. What can I say? I like sameness. I’m a creature of habit. I like knowing what to expect. I DO NOT LIKE CHANGE! Sorry….didn’t mean to yell.

The problem with living your life on auto-pilot, is that even though you may be accomplishing something—such as keeping the house clean, cooking meals, eating, and even doing creative things—you are not actually LIVING the experiences. We are like those kids in the back seat continuously asking, “Are we there yet?”  Eventually we get to our destination—a clean house, dinner cooked AND eaten, the sewing project finished—but we didn’t enjoy the process. Oftentimes, we cannot even REMEMBER the process. And in this hurry-up world, I know that I cannot be the only one that feels this way.

All of this was weighing on my mind as I worked the last few weeks of 2013 on coming up with my Theme of the Year for 2014. As I was thinking and writing notes on what I would like to accomplish with my life moving forward, a word kept coming to my thoughts: Present. So I decided to make that my Word of the Year. Then 2014 arrived and I realized:

Living my Theme of the Year (Excellent Womanhood) and my Word of the Year (Present….as in living in the moment) is HARD!

Yep, my auto-pilot button keeps finding its way back to the ON position. Which is okay when I am on the treadmill. Believe me, I want to get to the end of my workout and barely remember doing it! But with the exception of the treadmill and probably a few other things that are not coming to mind, I really WANT to live in the moment. So here are some goals for today to help me:

• Perform THREE mundane tasks THOUGHTFULLY and THANKFULLY:
  • hand wash dishes
  • make bed
  • clean the toilet (it IS bathroom cleaning day!)
• Do something frivolous in the middle of the day, BEFORE the to-do list is completely checked off.
• Finish ONE creative project.

I realize that these are not exactly earth shattering. They aren’t meant to be. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

What are three things that you want to do more thoughtfully and thankfully? Leave a comment below. Have you blogged about them recently? Feel free to link to the post.

Until next time……

Sammi