"Savor"

I suppose I'm pretty late to this whole "word" for the New Year thing. In fact, I'm so late I'm not even sure people are still doing that! Matters not, because I'm here now, and I have a word. It's a really good word too. It just kind of presented itself the other day after two very different interactions.

The first was a conversation with a friend about being one of the only houses on the block that still had its Christmas lights up. We were both keeping ours glowing until Epiphany, though the majority of our two neighborhoods had already packed Christmas away and moved on to the next thing.

The second came later that day at a funeral for a relative. As my cousin and I sat there listening to the pastor speak, he referenced a John Wayne movie. This actor had been a particular favorite of this man's, and the pastor was drawing a connection between the way he lived his life and one particular quote from The Shootist: "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

I thought about those two very different things, observing the fullness of Christmas and living life well... what they had in common... what their message was for me, and I came to this conclusion: "SAVOR."

This is my word for 2022.

Life moves fast. Days pass in rapid succession, turning speedily into months and years. I have often been unwilling to land long on any one thing. I tend to let my thoughts leapfrog from one major life event to another, trying to stay on top of things, to stay ahead of the game. But all that leaping means that I'm also skipping over some very meaningful stuff. The stuff that really makes up life and living well.

A couple of Sundays ago in a sermon, my pastor mentioned that life is made up almost entirely of everyday, ordinary things. Get up, go to work, come home, go to bed... is the record that plays on automatic repeat over and over again. How is one to live well when life is so... ordinary?? I think the answer lies in my word, "SAVOR."

Instead of rushing through my days, moving from one task to another on autopilot, what if I took a moment here, a moment there to simply... savor. What if I lingered a bit with that goodbye kiss in the morning, held on a little tighter with that hug? What if I allowed myself a few more seconds to watch the sun set completely or to gaze at the moon's rising? What if I read one more story, sang one more song to the grandbabies... or waved to the neighbors or stopped to greet a stranger on my walks?

What then would life be like?

I'm pretty sure our days aren't meant to be swallowed in gulps, barely tasting the sweet essence of our wonderful, extraordinarily, ordinary lives. No. Our days are meant to be taken in the tiniest of bites, each being savored to the full before we move on to the next. The usual, the ordinary, the everyday... this is the stuff of life. This is the stuff that matters most, and sometimes we're so busy focusing our attention on that next thing, and the next, that we're missing the very "ordinary" moments that make life great.

I don't want to do that any more. I want to be fully aware and present in thanking God for the incredible life He granted me.

I want to focus on the feeling of Tom's hand in mine. I want to take a mental recording of Ben's, Flint's, and Wade's laughter. I want to bask in the warmth of the sunshine and appreciate the impromptu dance the breeze and the sheets are putting on for me on the backyard line.

We don't have to fast-forward everything. We can just... be. We can stop, feel, taste, see, smell, listen... to it all... and savor every little bit. I want to try, really try, doing that this year. I want to savor at least one thing every single day. And you know what? I'll bet if I do that, it won't be long before I begin seeing, appreciating, and "savoring" all kinds of things. And won't that make this extraordinarily, ordinary, everyday existence... grand!

Happy New Year!!

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." - Psalm 118:24