As 2019 starts to wind down, I’ve been working behind the scenes at Living Solutions to prepare for the year ahead. 2019 has been a year of changes, growth, “Ah-Ha” moments and plain-old everyday moments. I’m sure you can say the same thing about your 2019. At the heart of it all was our family, our faith, our home, our friends, our work, and the knowledge of just how precious each of these things are to us.
The foundation of Living Solutions has always been helping people love where they live, and as 2020 rolls in, that will continue to be the focus for the year ahead.
For me personally, loving where you live encompasses so much: It means having a safe, cozy haven to call home. It means having my home function at its best, having a place for everything, and everything in its place. It means not having too much home or too many things, that really aren’t serving me or my family, but just causing us to manage stuff and not love on the people that call it home. It means filling us up so that each of us that live here can head out into the world and share the light we were meant to share.
It means being surrounded with the people I love. It means all the personalities, memories and history of the people that call it home are reflected there. It means inviting our community in to share in life; our family, our neighbors, our friends, our kids’ friends. It means knowing we belong somewhere.
It means rest, and acceptance, and love, and support, and joy, and comfort. It means having tradition, and things we can count on, a smiling face, a wagging tail, the smell of our favorite meal on the stove. It means playing outside on beautiful days, and hunkering down by the fire or under a blanket on snow days. It means routines and systems in place for the things that can be made into routines and systems, because Lord knows how much there is beyond our 4 walls that we have no control over. It means music, laughter, hugs, teaching, learning, growing and happiness.
Whether you live in a large, opulent house or a humble apartment, it doesn’t matter. I think we all want the same things when we think of “home.” Or at least we want similar feelings.
If you’re home feels like that for you already, invite others in. Not everyone has that, and I think we are all longing for it. Invite your kids’ friends, your neighbors down the street you don’t know too well, your church group, or your book club over. Share the special-ness of what makes your house feel like a home.
And if you don’t love where you live, yet, I hope to share ideas, concepts, or services with you this coming year to help you get there.
It’s hard for me to write this or even think that I want more out of my home when I feel so very lucky to have a home, people in it that I love and love me, electricity to light it up, heat in the winter and clean running water. Every time I think that I want to change something in my home, my next thought is “But what about all the millions of people in the world or even the people in our own community that don’t have that, or don’t feel safe or loved in their home? Why do I get that, and they don’t?” How I can help not just clients who have the means to hire Living Solutions, but also help those in the world around us, both near and far, love where they live is also on my mind and in my heart for this coming year.
As 2019 comes to a close, reflect on what HOME really means to you. How has where you call home served you and filled you up this past year? How has it drained you? What are ways you can add more of what you would like or need in your home in the coming year? How can you share that with others?
Make that list, {I love a good list ;) } and then rest and enjoy, and I’ll meet you back here in the new year to build that foundation of loving where we live.
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