Linger

If you listened to last week’s episode then you know I am not one for New Year’s Resolutions. I fully support people doing them, and I will never rain on your party, but they just aren’t for me. But I do believe in setting some goals for the year. In the last post I shared some reflection questions I use to prepare for the New Year ahead. Another tool I have used to help me set my intention for the year is picking a word for the year. I borrowed this idea from a friend of mine who said she did it because it feels less rigid and more kind. She is the kind of person who brings peace and calmness when she enters the room so I generally want to adopt more of whatever she is doing. 

Today I had a laundry list of things to get done because it was my last day off before we returned from Winter break but it was also my daughter’s birthday. All day long I felt torn between the pull of wanting to clear my inbox so tomorrow would be easier and an invitation to lean into the stuffie tea party that was taking place on my office floor. I kept rationalizing the errands…we already took her to Disneyland last week for her birthday, the groceries won't just appear in the fridge on their own and we need dinner.

As I sat down for my second makeover of the day I felt this invitation to linger. I can barely sit still in a regular salon chair let alone one with a toddler jabbing glitter into my eye. But even in that moment, I knew if I could just resist the longing to get up and move on to the next thing, if I could just stay in this moment, I would experience the magic. And I did, I belly laughed all day and got to witness the magic of birthday joy that is four.

I started to wonder how I could bottle this up and capture it all year long when days aren’t as generous and when deadlines really do have to be met. How can I actively take a step towards creating more magic in my life even on normal days? The answer for me is to linger, to be slow to part. This means creating a little more margin so I don't have to rush off and lean into the magic in the mundane. 

As I thought about the word more I realized this is actually something I really need to lean into and something that I could focus on all year so I’ve made “linger” my word for 2025. It’s an invitation to savor what’s in front of me, to create space for connection and joy, and to resist the pull of busyness. If you picked a word for the year I would love to hear what it is!