Hi there, friends, and thank you so much for all your words of love and support after my last post, about Celine. The biggest source of comfort for me in the wake of such loss has been sharing about her to others and hearing about her from others. She touched so many, many, many lives!

Since Celine’s death, I’ve been thinking about simplicity, but in a slightly new way. Instead of brainstorming challenges we can do together {which, believe me, I still have a ton of ideas!} I’ve taken a step back and have been focusing on the underlying reason behind this desire I have to simplify. You might call it “the WHY.” I’m thinking about this last sentence of my simplicity challenge summary: We’ll reflect on what truly matters to us, and why, and what we hope to do with that knowledge.

And I keep returning to this idea: Simplicity means getting rid of all the crap that doesn’t matter, to make room for what DOES matter.

Like relationships. Like passions. Like health. Like love.

My world changed forever last week, and in many ways I am still in shock and it still does not seem real. I am trying to be gentle with myself, as my wonderful minister Leslie advised, and to lean into the comforting embrace of friends and family who have been so loving and understanding and patient.

I have also been doing a lot of reflecting. Celine’s sudden death has shifted the way I think about my goals. I’m thinking more about big-picture things right now — as in, what do I want my LEGACY to be? Celine did so many incredible things in her far-too-brief life: things like moving to Paris, traveling all around the world, going to fashion school, and more accomplishments and amazingness than I can put into words here. Without a doubt, she inspires me now — as she did in life — not to put off my goals and dreams. There is peace in knowing that she was pursuing her big dreams and living the life she wanted.

But what I have also been thinking about — and what others who knew and loved her have been paying tribute to — are the “smaller” things she did … the jotted notes, the kind acts, the random phone calls and Skype dates, and basically just how LOVED she always made me feel. I think Celine’s real legacy is the way she treated people and the goodness she brought into the world. This week I’ve been feeling less urgency to mindlessly pound out work towards my goals, or simplify just for the sake of simplifying, because I’m feeling the need to step back and recalibrate what is most important to me — what my true priorities are.

This week, do some free-writing or journaling about your WHY for simplifying your life. What do you want to make room for? What do you want to get rid of {physically and emotionally}? How do you want to feel? What do you want your legacy to be?