Here is my crazy kitchen table/work space on a typical day. (Not pictured: snacks)
I had to blur it so my work couldn’t be read. I’ve got two different projects open on that table.

I don’t know about you, but things seem to be happening at top-speed at my house. I mean, it’s October already! Here in Tennessee, the weather has started cooling off. The leaves are changing colors. I’m eating caramel apples with lunch (read: for lunch). And nothing is slowing down. We are officially on the downhill slope heading straight for Christmas. In fact, Santa comes in less than 12 weeks!

Between the fast-approaching end to 2014, the upcoming travel, and my efforts to become a real author, it’s easy to switch my focus from my life to the busyness and to do lists (mine is pictured – bottom left of the photo).
The things we accomplish are not our lives. Whether we are making the bed or graduating from university (S graduates May 2015, y’all!), the things we do are just that – the things we do. Our lives are so much more.

I won’t always live in Chattanooga, Tennessee in a basement apartment while my husband is in university. I won’t always be poor (fingers crossed), wondering how to go about getting published, and vising my friend’s art studio. This time in which we are living will never happen again. These experiences will expire. The impressions and worries and feelings and hopes will change.

I can’t exactly slow down. I have deadlines.
However, I can choose to be aware, to be present, and to appreciate where I am, who I am, and what I’m dealing with. As things progress and my life feels like it’s changing rapidly, I smile as I soak it in. Little moments of crocheting on our kind-of-terrible old, blue, hand-me-down couch; splurging on a dragon fruit instead of grapes to eat with our favorite cheese, with candles lit and wine poured to make a special night that we can still afford; sitting on our front yard that we planted with our own hands, wrapped in blankets and watching the stars come out; looking out my front door from my kitchen table work space and seeing the wind blowing the sunlit trees.

All of it is special. Don’t let it all pass you by.