I have been working my way through Life Is a Verb over the last month or two. I've found several little "nuggets" in it and I am only a few chapters in. I found a poem and a quote to use on Christmas gifts for my Sunday School class. I found some exercises and questions that I have been thinking through.
Even better, though, was the suggestion that even small, every day things should be celebrated. The author stocks up on birthday candles and uses those in the food of the moment to celebrate anything and everything.
I wasn't interested in the birthday candle part, but the celebration part really clicked for me. My son loves to light a candle at dinner, so I used that as a starting point and bought a large white pillar candle. Then I pulled out a Pampered Chef Trifle Bowl I had bought (on special) and then put in a cabinet because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. Then we picked out clear and blue "marbles" to fill in around the candle. Voila!
We have since used it to acknowledge a raise, several good test grades, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and just surviving a particularly difficult day of work and life. The Celebration Candle has become a central component of our family dinner. We enjoy celebrating one another with one another.
I am a woman on a quest. I find myself repeatedly in the position of having taken on too many things and wishing I hadn't - of wondering why I said yes - of wishing I would have learned the last time.
I have decided that a good "next step" is to develop a personal mission statement. I want something simple that I can use as a guide when I make choices for where to invest my energy and how to spend my time. I am hopeful that 5 years from now (a) I will look back on this time as one of significant self-discovery and (b) that I will be living in the fruits of this labor, passionate about the things I am doing, connected to myself once again.
Toward that end, I am reading two books that are inspiring me toward this process.
Life is a Verb is something I read about at Women on Writing. The interview inspired me to run to the library and check out the book. After reading the introduction, I ordered it immediately so I could scribble in it and underline and highlight to my heart's content. I have not been disappointed with my purchase! The premise is what would you do if you had 37 days to live? Not a revolutionary question - people ask it all the time (although maybe not with the odd "37" number of days). The idea, though, is to live your "everyday" life in such a way that your answer to the question is that you would continue to live your life as you already are. There are quotes and exercises to keep me thinking and to draw me further in to the journey. I am loving it.
Come back Saturday and I'll share about the other resource I am using.
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