Less:Present

Last January, January 2011, I wrote this post. I had chosen a word that would be my "word" for the year. I chose "Listen" when things got crazy I would remind myself of my word and zero in on it. It turned out to be a really important year for me to just Listen. I was thinking about what my word for this year would be and it seems only appropriate that Less would be my word with everything that has been going on in my heart this season. I want to practice a life of Less this year. Less stuff, Less activities, Less clutter, Less chaos. I feel like I have lived a little excessive for awhile and it is starting to feel a bit suffocating. Things have got to change. I don't feel like having "stuff" is bad but when it holds a high priority in your life and you let "stuff" and activities fill voids in your life it is an issue and that is when things have to change. I never thought that I let "stuff"and activities fill voids but I guess I have. So I am striving to live with Less.

I thought this year I would have 2 words. The other word I want to focus on this is present.  Not present as in a gift but present and in intentionally here. I want to me more present in every area of my life. I need to be more present in my marriage, my relationship with my kids and relationships with my family and friends. I want to be present and aware of what is going on around me. I want to make more memories with my kids and I want to make more memories with my husband. I want more of them and less of me. In order to do those things I must be present .

These words will be my touchstone, the words that will bring me back to the center of life when things seem crazy and out of control. And they often do.

Less : constituting a more limited number or amount

Present: now existing, being in view or at hand,