Change

I've come to the conclusion that there's no better way to change one's life than to just change it.   

It's time to figure out what is important in life and just take a leap of faith for those things. Not only to just reach towards them, but to reach out with confidence, grab them and make them part of my life.  To make them part of who I am. 

(-excerpt from a journal entry I wrote almost exactly one month ago.)

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions.  Or to choose a word to represent each new year as many do.  But this year I felt a tug towards a change in how I spend my time each day, so I started taking a realistic look at just that.  I decided to give myself the month of January to try to create a different life, one that would become my new normal.  One where there was time for things that mattered and time for things that I enjoy.  One where deeper relationships would flourish with family and friends and one where I would grow as a Christian. One that would hopefully put an end to things like anxiety, laziness and loneliness, and instead create peace, confidence, diligence, devotion and communion.

This resulted in some pretty drastic changes around here.  For starters, I found out that when you do what needs to be done when it first needs to be done, it feels like your work is barely any work at all.  I also found out that if you declutter everything you aren't using, don't love or won't finish (yes, half finished craft projects I'm talking about you!) it gives you instant freedom to love and enjoy whatever is left behind after the purge. I found out that giving up commitments that you do not enjoy or do not truly have time for, is a very good thing. I found out that if you make an effort to be a friend, you'll gain a friendship. Most importantly, what happened this month is that I'm growing as a Christian.

One more big change took place that is worth mentioning.  It started two weeks ago when I took a (sort of) break from social media.  I unfollowed and unsubscribed like a crazy person, but still kept in touch with a few people (mostly family) through Facebook and Instagram.  I liked the results so much that I did the extreme and deactivated my Facebook account. As I was doing so, Facebook asked me why I was leaving and the very first option In the list of given answers was "I spend too much time on Facebook" and that was true, so I clicked it.  But to tell you the truth, that isn't what came to mind first as my reason for deactivating.  If I would have taken the time to fill out the "give us more info on why you're leaving" box, I would have typed that I want to form and maintain relationships the old fashioned way—face to face!  Or via phone or email if there are miles between us.  But not via a list of 300 friends and acquaintances who randomly share parts of their lives online.  Not by clicking on links they shared, or reading messages left for other people, or their random rants. I want to reinvent what friendship means to me personally. So goodbye for now, Facebook.  And hello intentional email letters and phone calls.  And maybe even snail mail letters, yup... as in with a PEN and PAPER of all things.

So did you make any resolutions this year?  Did you choose a word? If so, I'd love to hear from you.