A Year of Rest (IWSG)

Happy New Year to all the IWSG friends stopping by today! We are ringing in 2023 with unseasonably warm weather this week here in central Illinois. Yesterday’s high was a record-breaking 66° F (30° higher than usual, and 40° higher than this time last year). It’s going to be a little closer to normal today, but still warmer than usual. Not mad about it, and neither are my chickens.

This month’s IWSG question is, “Do you have a word of the year?”

This is a concept my husband and I have played with a few times over the years. I think our first word was “Dwell” back in 2017, when we were first thinking hard about our priorities and trying to pare back to the essentials. This year, the best word to sum up our aspirations is “Rest.” 2022 was a great year, with a lot of progress and changes, but not enough time spent on refilling our cups on a regular basis. That’s something we both want to prioritize this year: scheduling hours of UN-productivity into our week so we aren’t running on fumes all the time.

Our lives are full of blessings in this season. We homeschool our three elementary-aged children, we’re both running businesses from home (him: vocal coaching; me: writing/tutoring), and I took on a part-time job at the end of April last year. We have friends, a homeschool co-op, and church, plus normal household duties like laundry and food prep, too. If we don’t plan to rest, we simply won’t! Last year, we didn’t (or at least, we did it poorly).

Ultimately, my desire is to keep living more and more of my life with intention and presence. Rest allows me to pause, breath, and recenter, bringing the best version of myself to my days as often as I can. That’s a goal worth striving resting for.

Looking for some great reads about productivity, goal setting, and figuring out what you want to be working on? Here are three of my favorites:

Finish by Jon Acuff

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Atomic Habits by James Clear

This post is part of the monthly blog-hop hosted by the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. On the first Wednesday of every month, members are encouraged to write a post about their writing life and struggles, and visit other blogs in the hop to network and encourage one other. If you are interested in visiting the other blogs or joining yourself, visit the website here.