checking in {4.24}

It’s time to check in with our words!

You’re invited to join here. The link party’s open all week.

In some ways, April got away from me. We were gone the first week, for starters. (And Troy’s traveled every week since). The calendar filled, as April always does. Sports, fundraisers, meetings, appointments, tons of April birthdays.

Lots of doing, not as much being.

As a gift to myself on Friday, I set my phone to Do Not Disturb and took time to write in a birthday journal. (An old college notebook, nothing fancy. But more + more special as time goes by!) It all started with a Deepak Chopra article I read at the dentist in 2005. It included an ‘inventory’ of 7 categories: Intellectual, Spiritual, Financial, Physical, Emotional, Material, Play. Since then, every year on my birthday, I reflect and record where I am within each of those. (And a few years ago, I added Creativity.)

I reread all the entries on Friday and thought back to early days with Troy (well before keeping that notebook). I noticed that as our family grew, as jobs changed, and the make-up of our lives evolved, I –we — have been so consistent. Throughout years of dreaming…deciding…struggling…celebrating, the constancy of our why, of our shared values, is sustaining.

Seeing all those annual entries, in my own script, was an exercise in appreciation, you could say.

Writing this year’s reflections, though, I was surprised to feel…different. At times, I was restless. The framework felt tired to me. Like clothes that feel just a little too small. If I think of all those April entries as chapters in a book, this year felt like an end to ‘Part One.’ (And you know what that means — the end of one means the start of another!) I don’t want to leave the tradition behind; it’s a meaningful record of important parts of my life. And, I can feel it’s evolving.

(I could’ve written that sentence: And, I can feel its evolving.)

What’s all this mean?

I’m not really sure!

…Yet.

But I know it has to do with Invest ’24. How I want to invest in this season of my life.

We shall see!

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The month went fast and I couldn’t quite catch up with myself — so I’m grateful for the accountability here to put words to the awareness (which came right at the tail end!). (It’ll come into May with me, though.)

I look forward to reading how your One Word showed up in April. Thanks for joining me!