I'm sure you can all relate to my dilemma: you have a book you've been waiting ages for. Your pre-ordered one has just arrived in the mail, or you get that glorious email from the library that tells you your copy has come in.
Now is when the hard part comes: do you devour the book, or savor it? I usually fall for devouring, like when I finally got my hands on a copy of Blue Lily, Lily Blue. I finished it before the day was over. You end up neglecting your family and friends, while you frantically flip the pages.
But then you have the inevitable book hangover: where you're sad that it's over, and you wish you had more, and you kind of miss the excited anticipation phase. I wish I had the self-control to savor a new book, and enjoy it a little longer.
And really? I wish I had the self-control to savor a lot more things. The two biggest ones that come to mind are:
- Little moments. I have a really hard time shutting my brain off. So even if we're having some nice lazy family movie time, or all playing a board game together, it's hard for me to savor the time. My mind is spinning and scheming about a hundred different things. One of my new year's resolutions is to notice the little moments - so I created a jar where I'm writing little happy things on slips of paper. It's already making me pay attention more to the good moments, and hopefully I'll have a jar full of happiness at the end of the year.
- Cookies. I can't NOT eat them if they're in the house. I inevitably binge, and then sugar crash, and then feel grumpy, and so then I don't bake for a while. But the next time the baking urge hits, the whole cycle repeats. I'm really not quite sure how to fix this problem. I've had zero self-control when it comes to sweets for my whole life. I can't figure out how to make myself savor them!
But hopefully this year I'll make progress on that, since 'savor' is going to be my one word for 2015. It seems the best way to sum up some of the changes I want to make in my life this year. Less rushing, more enjoying.
What do YOU want to savor?
