Simplify - Appreciate - Linger

My New Year's Resolution is to focus on three words in my daily life: Simplify, Appreciate & Linger.

As I spent these last two weeks away from work, I intentionally kept those three words in my mind, and I am happy to report that I haven't been this happy in a long time.

Between Christmas and New Year's we were able to get away to the quiet of my sister's cottage--and even she commented on how much calmer I was. Normally I am always keeping things picked up and cleaning up after everyone, apparently also stressing everyone else out, but this year I concentrated on internal things. I listened to what my heart and head were saying I needed. If I felt like dillydallying, I did just that. If I felt like pinning on Pinterest for an hour or two, I did it. I even let the countertops get messy. I took my focus inward and when I did, it affected how I was perceived by others on the outside. Who knew the shift in my attitude would be so noticed by those around me? That thought will require some additional processing on my part.

Maybe this inward focus and life without a plan approach will be exactly what I need to allow my life to change direction. To the happier. To the place where I am supposed to be.

I have lingered (a lot) in the past two weeks, gotten sidetracked a time or six, and it has been EXACTLY what I needed. What both my mind and my body needed. In my pre 2013 way of thinking I would have evaluated my accomplishments during vacation and found them seriously lacking in the quantitative department.

But that was the old me, and the new me is content with my lack of accomplishment. Life off the path certainly has its rewards.

How about you, ever feel the need to stop the train?