A Slow Sunday

On Sunday afternoon I treated myself to a chocolate cupcake and a homemade latte. I love cupcakes, they always make a regular day feel special.

It was surprisingly warm and sunny on Sunday morning so my husband and I decided to go for a walk in the park.

We had our breakfast on a park bench in the sun, I had coffee and a Maple Pecan Danish.

It became a very relaxing and enjoyable Sunday. We went to church but other than that we didn't have anything planned. Sunday is going to be our rest day of the week from now on. We usually make Saturdays our rest day but this school year we have commitments on Saturdays so we're bringing back Sunday as our Sabbath day.

I love the fall because it's the time of year when many new programs and volunteer opportunities open up, I like to try something new every year. My only problem is that I tend to commit to too many things. Lately my husband and I have come to the conclusion that our weekly schedule has become too full, something has to go. During the last couple of weeks I have tried to figure out what we could skip but I've felt like we have to do everything that we have committed to at this point. I finally decided to write down everything we have committed to on a paper to get an overview of our situation. Once everything was written down it became easier to notice what we can skip and which activities we can put on hold until next year. Some projects we need to put on hold for another three years.

We live in a world with more opportunities than ever and it's tempting to want to do it all at the same time, but that's not the wisest approach. Every year I'm noticing that I get better life quality when I avoid doing too many things and rather choose to focus my efforts towards a few things per year. Toronto is a huge city with so much to offer, but there's no need to cram all the things I want to do into one year. Nowadays I write down 3-year plans, 5-year plans and 10-year plans in my journal to help myself see what I need to focus on this year versus what can wait. I don't want to rush through my life, I want to be able to stop and be grateful for everything I get to experience. I want to be able to focus more time on all my relationships; God, my marriage, friendships and family members. I need a slower paced lifestyle to be able to live a meaningful life.

My husband and I decided to cut four different things from our schedule so now our life is less full again. We also decided to make Sunday our new rest day and keep this day free from any other programs than church. I look forward to a less busy November because the month of October ended up being too busy. I tend to need to suffer a little bit before I learn what I need to change in my life. I've learned most of my life lessons through doing the wrong thing first (and feeling the pain) before I learned to do things the right way. Life is all about growing and learning new things and every year we become a little wiser. It's not fun to make mistakes but I don't think it's possible to learn anything important without making some mistakes. there's a lot of hope in that.