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 Here are two more stories from my 2018 album. The content for these mostly come from the “light” kit which was one of my favorites because it had all these super-happy colors.  Stories from 2019 is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here. Everything on the pages is from Ali’s Story Kits unless mentioned otherwise.  Weekly Intention: This week will be a bit more hectic than last week was but hopefully not a lot. My intention this week is still to go slow. Be home as often as possible, journal, be grounded, listen and try to pay attention. This month’s intention is: Seeing the Magic: Pay attention to your life. Make note of all the magic around you. See the people who love, cherish, and honor you. Thank people, show them that you see them. Still going strong on the letters. Maybe I can add one new thing this week. One way I will show up this week: I will try to be kinder this week. Listen with the intent to help everyone I meet with. One magic I will make this week: I didn’t get to do art at night during the week last week so I am going to see if it can be this week’s magic. This week, I will pay attention to: how to handle myself better in the evenings when I am tired and worn out. This week, I will be kinder to: people at work. let’s see if it makes a difference in how i feel. This week, I will focus on pleasing: nathaniel. let’s see if i can focus on him. One new thing I will learn this week: i didn’t pick an online class last week :/ this week i will figure out what math to teach Nathaniel. I am looking forward to: getting my hair done. This week’s challenges: getting all the routines decided and set at work. Top Goals:
I will focus on my values:
This week, I want to remember: that how I spend my days is how I spend my life. Everyday Magic is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here.  Magic I Saw this Week: Hmm this week’s magic was going bouldering together, getting back into the groove of work, but most wonderfully spending a lot of time with Jake. I saw how wonderful it is that I am able to come home early most evenings, spend most weekends calmly and really enjoy my family. Magic I Made this Week: Jake and I are still doing the yoga and it still feels magical but another piece of magic i created for us was driving up to dogpatch on Friday morning just the two of us so I could watch my amazing husband boulder and celebrate and videotape his progress. It was wonderful. Magic of Me that I explored Week: Hmm I am not doing as much work here as I would like but I did journal all week and there have been a few insights. I’ve also been practicing really feeling the kind words my husband says to me and owning them and thanking him. Top Goals Review:
I celebrate: transitioning to work reasonably seamlessly and slowly. I am grateful for: an unexpected bonus at work for some work i did last year. This week, I exercised: I’ve done yoga every morning and I’ve also done 10 pushups a day minimum each day. I also went to body pump once, another yoga class at work, and bouldering. Self-care this week: Still journaling, sleeping reasonably well, and leaving work as early as possible to work from home as much as possible. I showed up for: Jake this week. we got to put him on the spotlight. I said yes to: going bouldering even though i was scared and sore. I said no to: to bookclub even though i had intended on going but decided i really needed that night at home. Core Desired Feelings Check-in:
What I tolerated this week: i was very sore early in the week, though I am better now. My mood this week was: tired and in pain. I am proud of: how much work i got done, my discipline with coming home early. I forgive myself for: losing my patience more than i’d like. Here’s what I learned this week: i learned that most people don’t ask for what they want. most people don’t even know what they want. when a situation is not great, i need to take the time to understand what i want, and then ask for it. What I love right now: that i am still feeling relatively grounded. Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here.  I spent a long time thinking about whether I wanted to continue this project from last year. After going back and forth, I decided there was a way I could transform it slightly and make it work. After looking around for a long time, I liked this journal the best. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be nice in person but it’s absolutely beautiful. I take two photos a day of something magical in my life and then on the third box i write down gratitudes from the day. I know that the new science says this practice only works if we do it 1-2 times a week but I believe in daily or never so I am going for daily here. Some days I might not get to it, or some weeks I might really fall behind in which case I’ll do it weekly then 🙂 Here’s to Seeing more Magic in 2019. Moments of Gratitude is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here.  One of my goals this year is to bring back the practice of making art regularly. Ideally I’d do this more than once a week but if I end the year with 52 pieces of art, I will be super glad. To help with this goal, I am taking several classes so fae:
The work I share here will start with these and if I am lucky it will spread out to more. So we’ll see. This week’s art is inspired by Tam’s warm up in Lifebook week 1. This piece has nothing to do with the piece she created but it’s how I wanted to warm up. I can sit here and criticize every piece of this but I am surrendering and letting it go because the goal is not to create perfect art. It’s just to make more art and I have to start somewhere. So here it goes. Joy of Art is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here.      
So here we go, hello to 2019. Since I’ve spent the first week of this year at home, I’ve had a lot of time to read and have had some wonderful reads. Since I am using Good Reads here now thanks to Gypsy, I will go ahead and link to and copy my reviews here which means there will be a lot more writing per book. Ikigai (2 stars): I bought this book back in February of 2018. I had just heard about Ikigai and wanted to learn more about it. At the time I bought this one on audio and Awakening Your Ikigai for my kindle. I was in Sydney for a work trip and decided to read the print book first. I loved it. Even though the book didn’t really tell me all that I wanted, I highlighted so much of it. So I was looking forward to starting 2019 with a reminder on what I love so much about the concept. Alas, this book didn’t do it for me. If you’ve never read any books around the topics mentioned here, this book might appeal to you but as someone who’d already read Man’s Search for Meaning and already familiar with concepts of Flow, there wasn’t much in this book for me. It felt like it jumped back and forth and it even managed to annoy me in certain places. Depending on where you are in your journey this book might work for you but if you’re going to read one book on this topic, I’d recommend Awakening Your Ikigai over this one. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell (4 stars): I should have started with this as my first read of 2019. This moving story was spectacular. I loved the characters, the plot that circles back in on itself, and the sentiment of the novel. I listened to the author’s note at the end, too, and I love the fact that this novel was inspired by his own mother’s fight for his brother. To me, what makes or breaks a novel has everything to do with how the characters come alive and stay with you. I know these will stay with me for a long while. I will say a few bits that might matter: I bounce around in my reading. I will be in the mood for something educational, something sad, something light, something serious, something weird, something thought-provoking and sometimes something uplifting. Each of these books have their own types of formulas. I know that going into the story (and sometimes the book surprises me, of course, but that happens relatively rarely.) This is the uplifting kind. And on that note, it delivers beautifully. Born a Crime (4 stars): I finally finally got around to reading this book. It’s been in my audible pile forever but I kept prioritizing my library checkouts so this one has been sitting quietly waiting for me to be ready for it and today was the day. I had heard so much praise about this book that it was going to be hard for the book to live up to the hype. But it didn’t disappoint. I’ve stopped watching The Daily Show since Jon Stewart stopped hosting it so I knew nothing at all about Trevor Noah. I also knew almost nothing about growing up in South Africa and so much of what he talks about in this book. I think this is one of the reasons why this book is such a success: he talks about topics most of us don’t know about and manages to make the reader feel the horror at the same time as making the reader laugh. There are moments of terrible tragedies in this book and yet it doesn’t feel didactic in the least. And, of course, the biggest joy is seeing where he came from and where he ended up. The kind of story that gives you hope, reminds you much is possible in this life, and makes you feel another level of respect for Trevor Noah. The Library Book (3 stars): I have mixed feelings about this book. I checked it out of the library several times before I finally decided to tackle it today. Often times, there’s a reason I end up putting the book off but sometimes a book I’ve checked out six times ends up being one of my favorites and I regret not having read it sooner. I’ve liked Susan Orlean’s previous novel and I love libraries so I had reasons to read this one. When I saw it was the Reese bookclub pick for January, I decided it was a nudge from the universe (or Reese?) to finally read it. The book is told sort of in alternating chapters. There’s the story of the fire which I found fascinating and then there are stories about the author’s childhood around libraries and also about the history of the library which I found less interesting. In my experience, many non-fiction novels end up stretching their subject too much in an effort to make a book out of it when it could be a really intriguing long article. This felt a little like that. Like there was a lot of filler. And the book, in my opinion, didn’t fare better for it. I did enjoy several of the stories and especially the little mention of Overdrive which I love and use multiple times a day. But there were too many side stories, too much of the history, and too much back and forth for my liking. I am still glad I read it. The Art of the Good Life (2.5 stars): It’s always tricky to write a book on “how to be.” I know this book isn’t titled as if it’s telling you what to do/who to be but it’s trying to do exactly that, in my opinion. Even though I agreed with some of his ideas, learned new ideas, and disagreed with some of what he said, the part of the book that put me off the most was the tone in which it was written. Maybe it’s necessary to be “authoritative” when writing a book on how to live, but I would have been more open to his ideas if the author took some of his own advice and was more humble and argued the opposite of his ideas more often. Presenting alternate ways of thinking is most valuable to me when you give me both sides of the coin and I can make my own choices with what I’ve learned. But then again maybe that’s an altogether different book and this one is the author having done his homework and telling me the choices he’s come to after having done his homework. Alas that was my favorite part of the book, all the stories throughout and the appendix which is full of his sources, other thinkers that he quotes throughout, etc. The author clearly did his work. He’s well read, he spent the time thinking about what matters to him, what he thinks should matter to me, etc. But I guess I didn’t end up as big a fan of how he distilled it all. He brought together several different thoughts of school, wrapped it in a nice bow for me and ta-da! I have my present on how to life my life well. I guess, for me, part of living a good life is learning what that means for me. What my definition looks like and what are the pieces that contribute to it. So a book that’s wrapped up this neatly was never going to get me there. Having said all of that, I’ve highlighted a bunch of this book and it gave me a lot of ideas to think about and of course a lot of sources on who else to read to go deeper, to learn more, to think more. Hence the stars. Here are a few of the ideas that stuck with me: – It’s easier to do it 100% of the time: I believe in this wholeheartedly. Gretchen Rubin has a saying that what you do everyday matters more than what you do occasionally. I find that it’s easier for me to commit to something every single day than it is to do it X times a week etc. If it’s everyday, there’s no question or bargaining around it. I am doing it. – Don’t pick a side. When we pick a side, we look for proof that our perspective is right, that our story is the correct one and we keep feeding it so it gets more and more solid. I like the author’s idea of a “too complicated” bucket. Saying “I don’t know” helps reaffirm the truth that I don’t actually know. – Don’t assume the things/people you’ve accumulated in life are due to some credit to what you’ve done to deserve it. So much of life is chance. The part of this thought that resonated with me the most was this “The best attitude to have is that all of them are on loan to you, and may be taken away at any time.” I love this. Not just for the non-attachment part but as a reminder for me to really pay attention to what I have and how lucky I am. Not sure the author meant it that way but it doesn’t matter to me. – The idea of pre-mortem was not new to me in this book but it’s a good reminder to help avoid potential circumstances I can avoid and also help pinpoint sources of my own anxiety around a decision. – I wildly disagreed with reading only a handful of books of course. The fact that I don’t remember much of what I read doesn’t bother me and doesn’t detract from the experience of reading it and feeling what I feel at the moment. Maybe it’s a way to honor my experiencing self 🙂 – I liked the idea of mental subtraction but I have to read about it more to really understand it better. – I liked the idea of applying Sturgeon’s law to my thoughts too. 90% of what I think is garbage. It helps me not take myself so seriously. A bunch of food for thought. I’d really give this 2.5 stars but somehow it doesn’t feel right rounding up to 3. Maybe in a few weeks, I’ll come back and change it. Uprooted (4.5 stars): I started this book yesterday thinking is was going to be slow and long but I had three more days before I had to go back to work. Having read Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver I should have known better. The moment I started this book, I was lost in Novik’s world. I am not usually a fantasy lover. The more complicated the world building, the sooner you might lose me. I am not super patient and have no appetite for unusual creatures. But if you give me flawed, interesting, funny and three-dimensional characters, you pretty much have me. Novik’s characters never disappoint. Her twisty, dark, rich plot is just icing on the cake. The fact that her main character is a strong female character is the bonus that just makes her one of my favorite fantasy writers ever. Not to say that the book is perfect. I think if I had read this first, I would have given it five stars because discovering an author this talented comes with a halo effect. But since this is my second one, I think a bit of that has worn off. This book definitely could have been edited down a bit; there were parts that I would have likely glazed over had I not been on audio. I’d say this is a 4.5 star book, for me, but not enough to tip over to 5. Having said that, I couldn’t stop listening to it all day, and it took me less than 24 hours to finish this ~18-hour book, even at 2x, you can do the math that I pretty much read it the whole time I was awake. On a side note, the audio narrator is excellent and aligns with the feel of the story perfectly. If you haven’t read any of Novik’s books and like Fantasy, I say it’s time to grab one of her novels. Just make sure you have nothing else to do all day. And there we go, a reasonably solid start to 2019. I am now reading book number 7 and loving it. Here’s to wonderful books in 2019. Books I Read this Week 2019 is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here. I am also tracking my books in real time on Good Reads here. If you’re on Good Reads add me so I can follow you, too!  Midway through 2018 I decided to subscribe to Ali Edwards Story Kit to help make a travel album I was hoping to put together. I decided to buy a 6-month subscription thinking I could see if I used the contents for six months and subscribe longer if I did. I was hoping I could use a storytelling system similar to December Daily where I tell simple stories regularly and the sum of the parts would amount to magic like it does for DD.  I was so right. As soon as I got my hands on these kits, I was completely inspired to tell stories again. I completed my 30-page travel journal and then made 44 other pages. I’ve loved how my book ended up. So my plan for 2019 is to share some of these 2018 pages with you and then make and share the 2019 ones as I receive the kit each month. These stories are a crucial part of my seeing the magic of our lives. Stories from 2019 is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here. Everything on the pages is from Ali’s Story Kits unless mentioned otherwise.  Weekly Intention: This promises to be a reasonably light week at work. My intention this week is to ease back into things. To be present, to be calm and grounded and to slowly get back into routine. This month’s intention is: Seeing the Magic: Pay attention to your life. Make note of all the magic around you. See the people who love, cherish, and honor you. Thank people, show them that you see them. I’ve started sending daily letters to my mom and exchanging weekly letters with my friend Kelly. For January, I will continue to honor that. One way I will show up this week: I will listen more this week. Try not to commit to anything and stay in the place of collecting information. One magic I will make this week: Let’s go with art. I will try to do art at least one night this week. This week, I will pay attention to: my feelings. what sets me off, what triggers me. This week, I will be kinder to: my husband. he is always so so kind to me, i want to make sure to pay it back. This week, I will focus on pleasing: myself, i want to be able to extend myself grace through this transition. One new thing I will learn this week: i will pick an online class to take this week. I am looking forward to: transitioning back into routine. This week’s challenges: lol. transitioning back to routine 🙂 Top Goals:
I will focus on my values:
This week, I want to remember: that getting another turn around the sun is such a blessing. i am soaking in my days. Everyday Magic is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here.  Magic I Saw this Week: This week started with the magic of spending New Year’s eve with my whole family. The first time in 26 years. It was quite magical. Later in the week, everyone flew to their homes and we settled in to a magical quiet. On Thursday, both my boys were happy to go back to school this week even though they weren’t looking forward to it. They came back smiling and happy. Magic I Made this Week: Jake and I started doing Yoga together. We start our mornings with Adriene doing her Dedicate series. It’s been really magical getting to do it with my wonderful husband. I’ve also done some art and a lot of journaling this week which was magical. Magic of Me that I explored Week: As part of my homework for create.2019 I’ve listed all the wonderful moments in 2018 and in my life. It was quite the joyful and eye opening experience. Top Goals Review: none for this week! I celebrate: doing some art finally after a long, long break. I am grateful for: this long and wonderful time off i’ve had from work, getting to connect with my family and grounding myself This week, I exercised: I’ve done yoga every morning and I’ve also done 10 pushups a day minimum each day. Self-care this week: I’ve done a lot of journaling this week and I’ve been resting a lot. I feel pretty grounded. I showed up for: my son in helping him prepare for his high school application. I said yes to: spending time with my friend even though it was raining and I didn’t want to leave the house. I rarely want to leave the house 🙂 I said no to: going to a high school event for David next week. I don’t need to be there and there’s really no reason to add stress this week. Core Desired Feelings Check-in:
What I tolerated this week: my knee’s been hurting more than I’d like and I am hoping it will get better with regular exercise. My mood this week was: Lethargic but peaceful. I am proud of: How I started the year. Optimistic. I forgive myself for: Not being as generous with my time as others might want me to be. I am honoring my boundaries. Here’s what I learned this week: i said yes to keeping track of my books on good reads when gypsy asked me to even though i’d been asked before and didn’t feel like it. it turned out to be a blessing. i love tracking them there and taking the time to document my thoughts more deeply. we’ll see if i can keep it up but for now, i am really grateful. thank you gypsy. What I love right now: we’ve been putting on youtube videos of crackling fire on our tv and having that on in the background. I love love love it. Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here.
I had regular goals for my blog in 2018 and that worked well for me. Here’s some of what worked well and what worked less well:
So all in all, 2018 was less solid than 2017, partly because my work is a lot more in the office now so I have less time than I used to. I am working on adjusting this for 2019 so I am going to make much more ambitious goals for 2019 and we’ll see if I can rise to them. I still put this year in the win category!
For 2019, I decided to keep the same structure, mostly:
These are the only weekly projects I will commit to. And even these I might do more irregularly, we’ll see. These all mean something to me and I’d like to do them and I believe almost all are pretty doable. We’ll see what surprises 2019 has in store for me. I will also attempt to do some personal thought posts since I love those but I don’t want to commit to it regularly. All of these might happen, none of them might happen. I might repeat projects. I might do wildly different things. I am giving myself grace while trying to keep myself motivated. I’ve also signed up for a few classes to start the year:
Here are a few I signed up for in 2018 that I either didn’t finish or start 🙂 so I might tackle those.
Here’s to a wonderful 2019. Here’s to doing more art. Here’s to making time to enjoy art. Here’s to learning new things. Here’s to practicing more. Here’s to reflecting. Being intentional. Creating a positive cycle. Here’s to seeing, making and appreciating my magic.
As with all the previous years, I knew I wanted to pick my core desired feelings this year, too. If you want to know more about core desired feelings, please go to my post from 2016 and you can see the links there. I did the exercise this year as I do each year but I was actually feeling not my best self this year when I did them so I am not sure how much I like my answers. So I wanted to focus on how I want to feel this year. What are the feelings I am cultivating? If I get an offer of an opportunity, what are the questions I want to ask myself so I can make a decision around whether I say yes or no? How will I know if this action will make me feel what I want to feel? I mentioned before that there’s a pattern to my words: I always pick something around peacefulness, something around being brave, something around being open, and then maybe a few new ones. So this year I was curious if I would break the trend. Here’s what I came up with this year and what they each mean to me:
So there we are. I guess we still have a trend. Embrace and Lighter and my peace and true words, kind is my open word and alive is the brave one. I love all of these. Most importantly, I can immediately connect with the feeling I get when I say these words. I feel full. I feel content knowing these are the words I want for myself. They don’t feel like a lot of work and they feel joyful. Which is the sign that they are the right words for me right now. I want to feel all of them and I want to make a point to look at my life and my choices through these lenses next year. Here’s to embracing who I am and feeling alive, lighter, kinder in 2019! ps: After writing all this up, I’ve had the word “surrender” come up several times in my life in a single week. The first time I heard it, I felt it in my bones. And then it kept happening. I am not sure why now but I have decided that it is going to have to be a companion word for me this year. Maybe the universe is telling me I have to surrender to make any of this possible. And when the universe speaks, I listen.
I want to start by saying that this, too, is going to be a VERY long post. These reflective posts are how I make sure to live my life intentionally. They matter to me and I love being able to look back on them in future years. I know that this might not be interesting to many (if not any) of you, so please feel free to skip it. If some of you find it interesting, all the better. This particular exercise is following Susannah Conway’s Unraveling 2019 sheet. You can download it right here. I split the reflective questions looking back on 2018 in and the questions to help clarify goals/dreams for 2019 into two posts. This is part II, the 2018 reflections are here. All questions are Susannah’s and are copyrighted to her.
Well it would feel magical 🙂 I am deeply content. I am honoring who I am and stepping into it. Celebrating my strengths and working on my weaknesses but not because I am not good enough, because I would like to grow. I stay in more regular contact with the handful of people who really make a difference in my life. I foster a few new connections to see what might be there. I make more time to go to book club. I journal regularly, i make time daily to be grateful, i make time daily to hug my people and tell them the magic i see in them, i honor the good in myself and in others but I don’t just see it, i also acknowledge it and say it out loud. I care for my body out of love and appreciation. I connect with my own feelings and body and soul. I choose wonder, take a few chances. I go on dates with my husband and dates with my kids, too.
I am not into Tarot Decks and I did this two years ago and found it not to be that inspiring or interesting. However, back in 2013, our January OLW assignment involved setting intentions and I really enjoyed that, so I thought maybe I can do that instead.
I wholeheartedly believe that everything is possible in 2019! As always, I mention many of these same thoughts from last year and here, here, and here. I am pretty sure these themes have been in my life in some way or another for many years. I know that they will likely still be around in 2020 and 2021 and onward. What I’d like to do this year is to make a dent. To move things forward a little bit. Every forward step I take moves me in the right direction and that’s all I can ask for. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine stepping into the shoes of you from December 2019, one year from now. You are one year older and one year wiser and you’ve lived every day of 2019 fully and completely. You have a message of encouragement about 2019. There’s stuff you want to share… stuff you’re eager to tell yourself. When you’re ready, open your eyes, pick up your pen, and write a letter from your future self, starting with Dear Karen: I am so proud of you. I know that you showed up and tried. I know that even when you had moments of wanting to give up, you got up and tried again. I am so proud of how hard you try, how far you’ve come and how you show up again and again. Keep going, you got this! |
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