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I’m feeling a little broadsided that it is the first week of 2020, you guys!
I mean, I watched the days tick by on the calendar but it still seems a little mindblowing. The last decade of my life flew by! It’s hard to believe that I have lived in my little valley longer than I have lived anywhere else. That my baby turns 10 this month. That this fall marks 10 years in our home. And that, come August, I’m going to have a Senior in high school. What! How?
In the last few days, I’ve been taking a mental inventory of the past year. Getting up the mountain, away from the busy-ness of life, surrounded by a peaceful blanket of snow tends to do that to me.
I found a neat little Year in Review journaling exercise in the winter edition of the Magnolia Journal that really got me thinking. If you’d like to print out the prompts, you can find them HERE. (Look for the link right above the first photo that reads “click for downloadable content”.) I cut the prompts out of the magazine and old school pasted them right into my journal. In this digital age, I haven’t done anything like that in years! It was fun and lit a little fire for me. I’m not saying I’m going back to scrapbooking, but maybe it’s time to spend more energy on recording my life. If for no other reason than clearing the cobwebs in my own head.
There was a quote included in the exercise that caught my eye.
Isn’t it funny how day to day nothing changes but when you look back everything is different?
C.S. Lewis
It’s so true.
In the middle, everything seems the same but as I look back with 2020 vision (So punny! Sorry, couldn’t help myself.) so much has changed.
2019 for me was all about shedding… bad habits, bad feelings, excess hormones, unnecessary weight, fears, and energy. The year before had been a horrendous one. Yuck, galore. I was constantly sick, exhausted, and felt so alone. When 2019 rolled around, I knew that things needed to change big time. On a bit of a whim, I chose the word MAGIC to focus on. I could never have imagined what that would spark in me!
While this bathroom was definitely my most eye-catching project in 2019, the woman behind the camera was the most important one.
I’d like to write a post about my health journey, so I’ll save that story for another day. But I will say that small, simple, unremarkable daily changes have literally changed my life. When I look back to a year ago today, everything truly is different. And it all started with slowing down to look for magic in everyday moments.
When you start looking for magic, or God’s hand, you start to find it everywhere.
Mindset. It’s all about mindset. From the moment you wake up to the moment you rest your head at night. Everything is up to you. Your emotions, your thoughts, your perceptions, your reactions. Every moment.
Michael Bliss
I learned in 2019 that there is a time and season. Also, that things often come in waves… lessons, trials, storms, and abundance too.
I remembered how to look for magic. In the world, in others, but especially in myself.
And, although I know that physically there isn’t a lot to show for the effort, it is a year I can look back on and be proud of.
I laid the seeds for good things to come.