Each summer for the past 4 years my husband and I have spent a week of our summer at a family camp on the shores of Lake Michigan. It’s magical because life seems to stop. There is no cleaning, no cooking, no schedule and beautiful scenery all around. We count the days to our week in Michigan – for me it’s a retreat from the craziness, I put my feet up, read books, soak in the scenery and journal about changes I hope to make when I return to reality. Of course reality is always a hard hit upon our return home. This year will be different, because I have made new choices in the past 9 months and indeed these choices have warranted results I couldn’t have imagined. This blog is about those choices.
Welcome to Unhurried Joy, a blog dedicated to finding ways to keep life simpler, healthier, slower and more content and joyful – even amidst life’s ups and downs. It was not that long ago that I spent most of my time feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and like I “never had enough time” to complete the everyday tasks, let alone time for dreams and aspirations I hoped to achieve. I often worried about the future, spent time thinking about “what if this” and “what if that”, struggled with budgeting and felt generally distracted by anxiousness. The lightbulb moment was realizing the main perpetrator for these feelings was “too much stuff”. With each thing that left the house, it was one less thing that needed my attention, my time, my cleaning and my organizing. I had no idea that an emptier house could lead to a fuller life. I now have the time to savor life’s simple moments. I have time to make my dreams and aspirations a reality. This blog is one of them! I am a better wife, friend and teacher. Letting go of “stuff” has left room for so much more.
At Unhurried Joy you will find helpful hints and suggestions on decluttering your physical space, your mind and your schedule. You will find posts about eating simpler and healthier, about organizing without continual reorganizing, about budgeting more simply and about discovering the space, time and money needed to focus on what’s most important, while embracing the simple joys of life.
I hope my story of what I’ve discovered and learned along my journey will help motivate and inspire yours. I certainly don’t have all the answers – my life is far from perfect. I still have moments where I worry, feel overwhelmed or exhausted, but I’m better able to get a hold of those feelings before they get a hold of me. You will hear about my struggles, my solutions and my successes and I would love to hear about yours. I’m here to learn from you as much as you may be here to learn from me.
You are about to partake upon an exciting journey and each small step will lead you closer to a life full of wonderful things, none of which come from a store.