Yearly Planning & October Living
Monday, October 07, 2013
{Planner by Kate Spade, Notepads from Staples}
October is the month we're supposed to have it all together from an allegedly productive September. We get advanced warning, back-to-school supplies go up early August, and by late August the fall shopping season is in full swing. Yet, October sneaks up on us every year.
The holidays are a magical time of year, but the holidays also add a level of complexity to our lives. With every festive activity on our planners, we add a few more lines to our to-do lists. More and more we need to plan time to live, actively scheduling time for living, for savoring life, for allowing the holiday season to soak in imprinting its memories.
{Pumpkin Patch at Anderson Farms, Colorado}
We need to set aside time to live, in order to ensure the doing does not eclipse the living. There are so many beautiful ways to spend our time this fall, from pumpkin patches to holiday decorating and entertaining.
We can't do it all and if we try we'll miss the beauty. We must choose carefully.
I find myself waiting to wake up the thinner, more fashionable, inspired and put together version of myself, when I know becoming is both a practice and a discipline. If I want to get in three workouts a week, I need to set aside that time and vigilantly and militantly protect it, not allowing conference calls or commitments to encroach. My goal is to have school and my car paid off in two years, but do I want it enough to make a debt-plan spreadsheet in excel and plan to arrive debt-free in twenty four monthly payments?
{Halloween Cupcake Baking}
I love the smell of fresh paper and planning in the morning, and this morning I'm drinking carmel apple coffee planning out 2014. I promised myself I would do this last year because I spent a beautiful day at the pumpkin patch, made DIY glitter pumpkins with my best friend, plus Halloween cupcakes, but I didn't make time to post them on this little site. We all dream big dreams, but they don't just happen. They happen through diligence and allocating time, choosing joy and passion.
In a seventeen-month planner, I'm recording everything from favorite festive activities to nail polish colors and candle scents.
{OPI Nail Color: Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?}
I want to remember all of it, the spiritual awakenings and the coffee that was brewing when they happened. I want to ensure there is empty space for spontaneous trips to the donut shop to procure pumpkin donuts for my team. I want to remember how I spent my days and the lessons that came from each one.
It's true we plan to feel in control of our lives, when really God is in control. That's the dark-side of planning. On the flip-side, planning is one of the best ways to cultivate a passion for living and to create an excitement for another day spent alive.
It's much harder to enjoy life if we're running around frantically trying to put ourselves and the pieces of our lives together. There is no way to live fully by living fast. There is no way to grow and become if we're not taking time to remember and reflect.
One of the greatest lessons I've learned the past couple years is to plan to live, to actively decide how I will spend the days of my life, both what I will do, but more importantly, how I will do it. The days of our lives are numbered. If we're are lucky, we get about 28,000. Let's not get to the end and find that we wasted days rushing instead of living, collecting things instead of memories.
{Corn Maze at Anderson Farms, Erie, Colorado}
My encouragement today is to plan to live this holiday season. Let's not miss a day, or even a moment, of the beauty and the magic of this holiday season.
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