“We make pathways in our lives
And follow blindly till death,
Pride lifts our heads,
Blinding us to all but the stones we stumble upon,
Till Fate brings us down with a sudden blow.”

-Rumi

Hello there, September!

At this moment it is Tuesday night and it is the first of September and a full moon.

This being the start of the last quarter of the year, got me thinking, do you set resolutions for yourself? You know, starting Monday I am going to stick to a diet. Beginning of the month I am going to run regularly. I don’t know what point you struggle in your life, but there is that one thing you wish you were more of:

Organized, motivated, disciplined.

You know what I am trying to say. If you ever go to the gym regularly, you know what I am talking about. The first week of January. It’s like: who are these people? I make little friendships with people. And then they disappear by mid February. Every single year it is the same song and dance. What happens to them? Why can’t they hold themselves accountable?

If I were to ask you to put your top five most important things in your life what would you put down?

I’ll go first.

-staying in touch with my sister/brothers/mom
-staying connected with hubby daily starting with a sit down coffee and watching the sunrise together
-cooking meals daily for my family with the kids around me telling me about their day
-physical activity everyday (run/walk/yoga)
-journal and self contemplation then tucking the girls in bed (this is laying in bed with them every night and doing a daily review of ‘what was your cherry and what was your pit of the day?)

It’s weird that I write these for you. But someone asked me to do this exercise a while ago and although she was asking me what my life priorities were, it occurred to me what matters to me is essentially automated somehow. I remember one night I was putting dishes away after a party, girls fell asleep before I got to tuck them in. I heard about it the next day. Not complaint per se but awareness of missing a ritual.

I think if things matter to us, we can be intentional to the point that it becomes who we are. I had friends in Sacramento who would go mountain biking every chance they got. If they had a day off, I knew what they were going to be doing.

Having a passion and living that passion makes your life come to life.

I don’t know how else to say that.

To prioritize yourself to do the things that matter to you on a daily basis: it becomes who you are.

It is a crazy world we live in that there are things like ‘slow food movement’ and ‘slow travel’. The fact that we need to be reminded to slow down. To have a movement to say, hey don’t eat in your car. To actually pause and think about what you are eating.

I love to cook. I do it most days and many times on days that I am off. It’s also a form of meditation and it is an expression of love to people around me that get fed by me. When people proudly say, I don’t cook, I am always taken by surprise a little. There is a pride in the way they say that.

I heard about a female physician talking about outsourcing all her chores. She had more important things to do. Laundry. Cooking. Dropping kids off at sports events. Pay someone else to do them.

I thought about that and pictured my life like that. How sad would I be if that was my life? What is more important to me than listening to the kids in the minivan talk to each other about life’s silly wonders? Nothing.

Our lives are made up of moments. Moments that make up our lives. If we try to force expectations on ourselves (starting the gym on January 1st) and delegate our life’s daily rituals (cooking, laundry, driving the kids) to other people, what are we doing this very moment?

I understand different homes have different rhythms. But if I tried to schedule my exercise on a calendar that starts on the first of the month or the year, tried to eat better starting Monday, and tried to delegate my rituals to other people, what would my life be? What would my life be this very day?

I guess this is the question for you, not me.

Living intentionally means doing what gives you joy. Knowing what your priorities are and LIVING those priorities today. Not on a calendar that starts on the first of the month or on a full moon.

Every single day matters.

As Dave Matthews says: “Tomorrow is no place to put your better days.”

So much love to you all.