Starting Now: Start #1: 1000 Gifts

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Start #1: 1000 Gifts

My first start is in appreciation of my dear friend Brooke Damore. Brooke shared with me her moving experience of reading Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts. I looked at Ann's website this week and was equally moved and also inspired to start my own list of one thousand gifts. My start is to live a life of gratitude and help my family do the same, beginning with 1000. Thank you for sharing your gift Ann! Here I go...

1. Sitting with Lily and Emmy this morning at the dining room table in our pajamas, me sipping from a warm clay mug of green tea while helping Lily spell words for her Santa list (wondering how I will instill the "giving" part of the season and feeling grateful that I have lots of time to learn) and drawing crayon dolphins and hens with Emmy at her request. Who knew that watching Lily's eyes light up, her list coming to life as she wrote each word herself, and seeing the delight in Emmy's face as perwinkle, blue, yellow orange, outrageous orange, and goldenrod gave breath to our animals would bring me so much peace and happiness.

2. A clean space to work thanks to an unexpected start AND finish today - the growing pile of filing that had taken over the computer desk is not just hidden, but actually filed. This I was able to do because both the girls rested today.

3. Long shadows on a late fall afternoon hike hand in hand, Lily in the middle shouting, "Look, it's a W!"

2 comments:

Tina SykesOctober 23, 2011 at 10:48 PM
Thank You for sharing! I'm excited to go on this journey with you!
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AnonymousOctober 26, 2011 at 3:00 PM
You have inspired me to start a gratitude journal. Thanks for the reminder that we have so much to be thankful for. The little things that we can overlook and take for granted can be a great source of joy. Slowing down and taking the time to see the little blessings all around us can change everything. It is all in our perspective. Have a wonderful day because as they say, "Every day above ground is a GREAT day".
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Welcome to Starting Now

Starting Now, I am starting to finish. Always prolific in my starts, I give birth to many ideas that flutter like a baby bird leaving the nest for the first time. In what feels to be the thick of my life (see "About Me"), there is no better time than now to take flight, to make my finishes as abundant as my starts. I no longer have limitless time or desire to clean up the mental and physical chaos created by starting many things and not fnishing one.

It is my hope that in starting now (for there is only now) and starting here on the page, that I will reach through the initial excitement of a thought, a project, a relationship just beginning, etc.... I will abandon my fear of yet another fallen start, sorrow heavy on my mind and in my heart to instead, give strong wings to my start, life to my lungs, and clarity to my psyche as I soar from one project to the next.

A bit lofty, I realize, but in starting this blog, I am creating accountabilty for myself to show up at the page every day. To show up is to write every day. Create. Improve every day. Learn. Hone the idea, thought, project, progress every day. Grow. And perhaps, learn from others who care to share their ideas on starts and finishes, as together, we spur a community of finishers able to relish in the life and gift - to ourselves and those we share our lives and gifts with - of what we finished, and what we start anew, again, now.

The idea is that as I embark on a start, I will track it here to its finish. Add thoughts if you like, or share your own starts, what you learn along the way, ideas for improvement and efficiency, how you enjoy the journey. For I realize that life is not simply about finishing, but the journey along the way. Yet, I am learning that to finish (something, anything, if even just for today it is folding the laundy and putting it away), boosts my confidence and becomes the catalyst for the birth and life of another start. Another contribution to our beautiful world.

My Life

Mother to Lily and Emmy, two young girls alike only in their adoring, interesting, active, sensitive, loving, creative ways; wife to Andy who has an uncanny resemblance of characteristics to the ways of our girls and who is a recovering (at least that is my wish!) non-finisher like me; caretaker of our human-like Irish red and white setter named Molly, and;

Breathe, ahhhh

Active participant in our lives filled with work, school, deadlines I struggle to meet, homework, cooking, appointments, relationships, laughter, sometimes screaming (we’re all working on that), play, bills, travel, gymnastics, walks with the dog, reading, managing technology and schedules, exercising our independence and learning to work together (and the balance of the two), trying to make healthy choices, and, did I forget anything?

Yes! In honor of my first start, breathing fully (I often forget to do this) and practicing gratitude. Thank you breath, for you give me life!