The year has started off well! Having the holidays on weekends made it feel like we got jipped out of days off, but Nathaniel and I did get several days off and we ended up using them to really deep dive into our goals and plans for the year. We’ve never been people to have a word for the year but this year we saw the trend in all our thoughts and goals and the word we settled on was “Intentional.”
Now, that’s a loaded word. But, like we found, all of our goals and plans for the year have to do with us being more intentional. Intentional with our time, our money, the projects and people we pour ourselves into. We’re making intentional time for our faith and for our relationship. It’s all together very focused.This does make things feel more intense, like if I don’t do the one thing I’m going to ruin a whole year’s worth of work, but it won’t and I’m learning to be gentle with myself. When it comes to my written daily habits that I keep track of, I have a tendency to really be hard on myself to complete them but sometimes you just can’t. I have a rule I stole from Matt D’Avella (he probably stole it from someone else too but I can’t remember) where I give myself permission to skip one day but not two days. I have already used this multiple times even in this first week. Knowing that I’ve worked into the system the ability to take a day off has made the type A/perfectionist pressure lessen dramatically. I just can’t take two days in a row off.
I am happy that I feel so good about where I am and how I’ve been feeling and that I’m able to set such lofty goals and intentions for the year. I am doing really well mentally and emotionally. My work is fulfilling and I’m busy but not too busy. I feel connected to my soul and to God and to my husband and friends. I'm in a really good place. I feel like I’ve really grown the last several months of 2022 and am just chomping at the bit for the new year.
When looking back at 2022, I realized a lot of it slipped through my fingers. I had huge blanks in my memories and could not tell you anything more than the big stuff that happened. That’s why this year I really want to have a little check in with myself in a more journaly way and maybe I’ll publish this and maybe I won’t, who knows.
This week was full of fun and hard work. Nathaniel and I, like I said, spent a good portion working out our intentions for they year and getting a head start on our goals. He’s writing again and that makes me so happy. I’m waist deep into costuming The Color Purple with Springfield Contemporary Theatre and Mosaic Arts here in Springfield. It’s an amazing cast and I’m so happy for the opportunity. I’ve started actually pulling costumes from their costume loft at this point and I think I’m going to be able to wrap our 27 person cast in at least some sort of clothing. Here’s the link to the show page!
Nathaniel and I are making plans to invest more in our relationships so we invited some friends over Saturday night to connect and play some games. That was really good and I hope we do it again soon. It’s hard to connect with people, especially in the US. Growing up in Europe meant you made time (or you just had more time?) to connect with people. Maybe my parents were just extremely hospitable but we always had people in the house. I don’t expect nor do I want to have people always in my house, but I do miss having regular social time. The place where we see the most people outside of our jobs and creative spheres is church. Church is meant for God and although you can socialize before and after, trying to socialize more deeply on Sunday mornings always seems like an interruption for people. (More on that in a later post) Maybe I need to establish an open dinner invitation on a night or two a month and who comes, comes. It is hard to make friends as adults and childhood experiences don't really prepare you for that. People are just really busy.
Speaking of not being busy, me and my close girl friends got together Sunday after church and were able to check in with each other and our goals and plans for the year. I feel like I’ve always had at least one close friend in my life but having two friends that are willing to be so real and vulnerable with each other is truly a blessing. We have this little trifecta of personalities and it’s been really good for all of us. We went to a coffee shop and talked about a slew of things to the point where Nathaniel texted me asking if everything was going ok. Everything was going very ok. We decided to get together every other Sunday afternoon to continue to check in and see each other even if we see each other in between those times.
All in all it was a great week. I feel like I spent my time well and I was able to be in the moment and focus both on what was actively happening but also work towards my long term/future goals. See you next week!
If you’d like to literally see what I get up to, I have started vlogging like it’s 2014 again on a brand new YouTube channel. I’m trying to get into the habit so I (like with keeping this blog) have memories and records of what I did and how I was thinking about things. The videos are extremely short snippets of my life and shot on my phone because they’re for fun and that’s ok with me. -Noel
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