It's the start of a new season.
The end of the first full week in our new home.
The first week I slept in the same bed every night for a long time (well actually except last night).
The first week of Llewellyn attending University and me commuting to and from London every day by bicycle and train.
The first week of ‘settling’ after a pretty full last few weeks: fourth wedding anniversary, partying in Brighton, moving house, 29th birthday, family visits (first people staying in our new home), Llewellyn’s first ever theme park and Ikea trips, watching rugby in first Hatfield-pub visit, checking out a new church, sampling the delights of Hatfield's many Chinese/kebab joints.
It’s been over two months since we left Cornwall. It seems like a world away. It kind of is.
It’s definitely a new season. And to mark it, there’s a few things I want to prioritise:
Taking creativity seriously
For me that means writing, movement and photography. I say that I’d love my life to be full of those things, love to do them full time. If that’s ever going to happen then I need to work at them now, not just wait and hope that magically life will change and opportunities will open up.
By this I mean eating well and exercising regularly. Not a big deal for some people, but they can easily take second place in my life. I’m not sure yet what this will look like and what changes I’ll make but right now cycling to the station is enough for my unfit self to adjust to!
Re-connecting and community
Although we’ve moved once again to a whole new place, there’s quite a few friends old (as in we’ve known each other a long time) and less old that live within an hour’s travel. There’s people I’ve not seen much of in the last few years, for various reasons, and especially not since moving to Cornwall. Friends have had babies, partnered up, started new careers, moved to and from London. I’d love to reconnect with friends, knowing that relationships might look different to how they used to, but keen to make space for that. I hope we have lots of visitors in our new spacious flat!
Of course it’ll be great to get to know people in Hatfield too, to have some form of local community. Living in Cornwall showed us how important this is. I won’t be in Hatfield loads, but when I am I want to be ‘present’ and learn to love the place.
Re-connecting and community is a spiritual thing for me too. Over the past year or so my faith has been challenged, I’ve gotten more cynical, I’ve lost some passion. I want to re-connect with God and with fellow faith-journeyers - even if it looks different to how it has done before.
***
I know all this will be a challenge, especially with a full-on, full-time job and now the extra commuter time. As good as my job is, I want my life to be about a lot more. What I’ve talked about above is what makes me feel alive. So I don’t want to neglect these areas. This means being disciplined, organised, and breaking big aims down into manageable tasks. It sounds kind of boring, but as I was reminded by Roger Robinson last week in a talk about ‘Unlocking creativity’, it’s the pushing through on the mundane and the detail and the little everyday things that can make the most difference in the long run.
I’m still figuring out what those little everyday goals are for me in this season. This isn't about getting everything right or putting too much pressure on myself. I know some weeks will look very different to others. But I figure sharing the journey adds a level of accountability - and keeps me writing too.
What about you? What are your priorities for this season?
No comments:
Post a Comment