Tag Archives: why

a year of living simply: week 5

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Hello everyone, and happy Wednesday! Hope you are having a great week so far. My week has been a mixture of “grown-up” things like getting my tax stuff in order and scheduling doctor’s appointments and going shopping to keep my fridge stocked with veggies; and restorative time reading, journaling, talking to my family, and soaking up time with friends old and new. I also met with two wonderful women from my church to talk a bit about Celine and how much I miss her. Sometimes I feel the need to cocoon myself, but other times it just feels good to talk about her.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I’ve been thinking a lot 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.

year of living simply

Celine’s sudden death has shifted my attention to the big-picture things. I’ve been asking myself:

What do I want my legacy to be?

I want to brighten the lives of other people. I want to spread joy and kindness. I want to write books and blog posts and stories and articles that make people feel comforted, supported, inspired, and understood. I want the kids I teach and tutor to feel more confident and proud of themselves. I want to plant the seeds of trees that will provide shade for future generations. I want to help causes greater than myself. I want my loved ones to *know* how much I love them, and to always feel like I have time for them. I want them to know, always, without a doubt, how important they are to me. I want my legacy to be a ray of sunshine that makes other people smile.

Last week’s challenge was to 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?

I want to simplify my life to make room for what’s most important to me: namely, my passions and the people I love. I want to feel like I have TIME, like my days aren’t just flying by mindlessly. I want to notice and savor the everyday moments of beauty in my life. I want to feel energized and excited and FREE.

Since writing is my passion and a major vehicle I use to spread joy and connection in the world, I realized I need to set aside some time to simplify and organize the backbone of my writing life: my computer files.

This week’s challenge is to get digitally organized and simplified! Delete unnecessary files; clean out your Downloads folder; organize your Word documents into folders; clean up your Desktop. Even if you’re not a writer, I’m willing to bet you use your computer every day and it contains files important to your life and your dreams.

a year of living simply: week 4

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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.

year of living simply

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.

celine on train

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?

celine legacy