less.is.more.of.what.i.need - fort collins portrait photography

{some of life's great bounty}

You know that feeling when you have all this white noise going on in your life and the universe seems to send you the same message over and over and over ... then, all of a sudden, a voice rises above the din and tells you loud and clear the very same thing that you keep hearing on repeat, but, for some inexplicable reason, this time you actually listen??

A few days ago, I read this post and it resonated so deeply with me.  Her honesty allowed me to reflect on those places in my life that mirror hers and those are places that I really want to change.  Upon reflection, two facts became painfully clear to me:

1.  I haven't taken a break from blogging in over a year.  Part of that was driven by the 'fear' that if I took a break, I would lose any semblance of blog followers that I had (somehow!) managed to keep engaged up to this point.  

2.  I also realized that I really haven't ever taken a break from Facebook since I joined 3+ years ago.  Part of that was driven by the 'fear' of feeling left out or just plain 'out of the loop' in conversations with friends.

Whaaattt???  Just seeing these two facts in print is more than a little embarrassing for me.  Lately, I feel like I've lost my center a bit.  I've been so focused on what I would miss out on in the virtual world that I didn't realize that the time and energy spent 'keeping up' happened at the expense of some really important things in the real world ... ya know, the one I actually inhabit??  As if all of these messages being sent my way weren't crystal clear to me by now, the final one-two punch came in the form of this no-nonsense little chart:

{compliments of Harvard Business Review}

Dear Universe:  Ohhhkay ... I get it!  I get it already!

I'm always saying I want more of the things found in the right hand column of the chart, but what am I actively doing to create space for them??  That, my dear, is the question that begged for an answer.  Not just any answer, but an answer with a real live action item attached to it!  

All this to say that I've challenged myself to take a break, a REAL one.  One in which I get to practice remembering what it's like to be me, apart from my online life.  I'm checking out of FB for the next ten days and I won't blog again until April.  I'm anticipating that it will be a really fruitful season in my life and I'm excited about all the things I'll have more time to do:

more yoga

more sunshine

more exploring

more good books

more picture-making

more running, hiking, walking

more face-time with my loveys

more time to breathe deeply

more time to just 'be'

Sounds like a dose of pure lovely, doesn't it??

I'm ready to create space for more of life's abundance.

I'm ready to put my money where my mouth is.

I'm ready to step into a newness of life.

Bring it.

{P.S.  Please note that I'm NOT taking a break from photography so if you would like to hire me to create some oh-so-lovely images for you, please drop me a line so we can make it happen!}