Adventures of the Former Elginista

Well, here we are, December 31, the waning hours of the year. I’ve fought through the entirety of Reverb10, including the redundant prompts and the ones that made me scratch my head. There were well thought-out posts (Appreciating the Questions, Awake). There were lists (11 Things I Don’t Need in 2011 and 10 Tips to Achieve Balance). There were prompts I really didn’t like, and a couple times I had to write multiple posts in a day to catch up. (Including yesterday and today.) But I stuck with it, for better or worse, and I’m satisfied.

The final #reverb10 prompt tries to sum things up, asking, “What central story is at the core of you, and how do you share it with the world?”

While the duplicative prompts were annoying, they did serve to suss out some key themes. Namely, 2010 has been a year of so much change, but the change has been very positive because I have embraced and enabled it. Along the way, I have said yes to all kinds of new things, and opening those doors has greatly enhanced my life. I’ll continue to do so in 2011, as I’m sure there are still fascinating doors to open and uncharted paths to follow.

Doing so has greatly expanded my world and the community I live in. I love Elgin, and in 2010, I discovered even more community and feel so lucky to be a part of it. I’ve become more active on Twitter and other social networks and have loved the results as I’ve increasingly brought those relationships into real life.

I’m also more active than I’ve ever been, and movement has become an important part of who I am. I get twitchy if a few days go by between workouts, and a 15 minute walk at lunch can really clear the head and reset my day. A year ago, I was still struggling to make myself work out. Now, even when pressed for time, it’s part of who I am, as is eating well. Moving, eating and sleeping have fueled great days and made everything else possible.

I’m looking forward to an even better 2011, full of surprises and adventures. I’ve had two weeks off work, so I’m ready to GO!

Happy New Year to you! Let’s make next year great!

On the heels of Christmas, I’ve been thinking about gifts a lot, both given and received. I had a great Christmas and got a lot of fantastic gifts – a North Face wicking jacket that has been fantastic for cold-weather running, a crock pot and some terrific new pots, lots of kitchen gadgets, clothes, the most cuddly fleece PJs I’ve ever worn, tools and even a crowbar.

Yesterday’s #reverb10 asked, “This month, gifts and gift-giving can seem inescapable. What’s the most memorable gift, tangible or emotional, you received this year?”

Besides the physical gifts, I’ve really been lucky to get the gift of time with loved ones. I see my parents far more than I used to, and I love it. The hours (and hours, and hours) spent painting the front of the house were time well-spent for reasons beyond home improvement.

I’ve also received a gift of self – I feel much more centered, balanced and at peace with myself than a year ago. That didn’t require a credit card, and it didn’t come with a gift receipt, but I wouldn’t return it for anything.

What’s your favorite gift from this year?

This post is part of #Reverb10, a month-long project to reflect on the year nearly gone. Read all my #Reverb10 posts, or learn more.

I’m running out of juice for #reverb10 – many of the prompts feel repetitive, and it’s been a long month. But I’m so close, I feel like I have to finish!

The 12/29 prompt asks about the defining moment(s) of 2010. (Defining Moment: Describe a defining moment or series of events that has affected your life this year.)

Not coincidentally, the defining moments included those when I felt most alive. Finishing my first 5k, making big decisions, hanging out with new friends in new places. Essentially, 2010 was the year of change and adventure and new things.

Every decision I made, from the big hairy decisions (the breakup) to the simple “sure” responses to various invitations to new places and new things helped define me and the year.  And I won’t really understand their true impact until years down the road. It’s hard to define your year when the year isn’t quite over and you haven’t yet realized what was really important or set the stage for other things.

So maybe it’s an easy way out of a prompt, but it fits.

How about you? What was your defining moment of 2010?

This post is part of #Reverb10, a month-long project to reflect on the year nearly gone. Read all my #Reverb10 posts, or learn more.

Achieving is good. Setting and reaching goals really helps make me tick. So when the 12/28 #reverb10 prompt asked about achievement, I was ready. (What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write that feeling down. Then, brainstorm 10 things you can do, or 10 new thoughts you can think, in order to experience that feeling today.)

But then I realized that there’s not one big thing I want to achieve next year. I won’t finish my degree – though I’ll spend the entire year in school. I don’t have time to train for a marathon, so I’ll stick with the two halves I’m planning to run (the Jan 29 F*ing Freezing Half and the Indy Mini in May). Those will be great achievements, I’m sure.

I can seek to achieve better balance, though. I’m well on my way, but by remaining constantly aware of how important balance is, I can come closer to achieving it. Achieving balance isn’t a single “aha” moment. There’s no diploma for balance, and I can’t cross it off a to-do list.

But I can remind myself to live a balanced life by eyeballing my schedule and adjusting as much as I can. I know it won’t be perfect. There will be weekends filled with homework and frustration, and I’m sure the kitchen floor will again go too long between scrubbings. Too many months will pass before I see some friends, and I may cancel a fun outing due to sheer exhaustion. But balance requires some of that quiet couch time, too. And I can’t beat myself up about not doing “fun” things when I’m instead taking care of myself.

So balance it is! Balance won’t complete me or free me – rather, it will continue to fuel the alive feeling I’ve grown to love and crave.

My balance action plan:

1) Stretch, every day. Connecting the body and mind are essential to starting the day right.

2) Say yes to new things. You never know what you may discover.

3) But be able to say no.

4) Move every day. Whether it’s a formal workout or just a quick walk around the block, taking 15 minutes to move can reset your perspective and clear your head.

5) Read something for leisure. While school reading increasingly usurps my fiction and even newspaper reading time, I try to at least read one poem every evening before bed.

6) Couch time. Even just an hour one night a week, with a glass of wine and a quiet house is therapeutic in its own right.

7) Write frequently. #reverb10 is helping create this habit, though I know daily is not realistic in the long term. But being creative is just as important – if not moreso – as consuming content.

8. Reconsider clutter. I’ve spent the last week cleaning out the basement, guest room, closets, dressers… I need to be more proactive about keeping junk from coming into the house in the first place.

9) Go somewhere. As I’ve written, I love to travel and haven’t done nearly enough lately. I’m changing that.

10) Walk the talk. All these tips are well and good, but I’ll only achieve balance if I actually walk the talk.

How do you achieve balance? What will you do differently in 2011?

This post is part of #Reverb10, a month-long project to reflect on the year nearly gone. Read all my #Reverb10 posts, or learn more.

If you don’t find joy in the ordinary, then why bother? There are rarely enough “big” events full of official joy – weddings, birthdays, Christmas – to sustain a person through the whole year. Instead, look for small bits of joy in daily life, in the ordinary, to fuel your days and weeks.

I find joy in all kinds of little mundane things, from lying in bed, watching the sun rise over the river to falling asleep at night with a purring cat next to me. There’s joy in opening the daily paper, hearing the rustling of the newsprint, and seeing the resulting ink smudges on my fingers. There’s joy in finishing the crossword puzzle or in hearing my dad serenade my mom, crooning Motown songs to her on long family car trips.

I find joy in crossing things off my to-do list, but also in putting new projects on the list, excited to get started and see ideas come to fruition. I was nearly overwhelmed with joy when I found my favorite tea at a shop in Geneva a couple weeks ago, after searching for it for four or five years.

There’s joy in finishing a race, or even in just pushing through a tough workout, knowing that I accomplished more than sitting on the couch. Joy in discovering connections among my friends, in realizing how small the world is. Joy in getting emails from long-lost friends or notifications of blog comments. Joy in walking in fresh air after a long day trapped in the office. Joy in Christmas lights, in quiet evenings at home, reading or writing and enjoying the peace. Joy in turning the key to my home, knowing I’ve created a comfortable nest for myself.

There’s joy in so many mundane moments that it’s nearly impossible to catalog them all or pick a “most joyful.” It’s the combination of them that gets me up in the morning, knowing that there will be moments of joy and bliss in the day ahead, and it’s my job to enable them when possible and enjoy them no matter what.

Where do you find joy in your daily life?

This post is part of #Reverb10, a month-long project to reflect on the year nearly gone. Read all my #Reverb10 posts, or learn more. This prompt asked, “Ordinary Joy: Our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. What was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year?”