Everywhere you look on the internet these days bloggers are posting the Best of 2015.  Best books, recipes, posts, you name it.  There are also a plethora of resolution and goal setting for 2016 posts out there.  Well, I’m happy to tell you that you’ll find none of that in this post.

Knowing you’d be reading this post on your first day back to work after a (hopefully) long break I wanted to give you something good, not more of the same.  While I have read some great books and done some great things in 2015 you can read that somewhere else.  And I’ve never been much of a resolution girl.  I’m smart enough to know they don’t last.  I have been thinking a lot about what 2016 has in store for me though.  This is the year I celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary, my youngest starts Kindergarten (cue the tears), and my husband and I both turn 40.  There are big things coming.  Which is why I keep coming back to one of my favorite quotes from the great philosopher actor Rob Lowe which I’m paraphrasing here:

Every day we have the opportunity to move forward, back, or stay put.

This year, I’ve decided to stay put.  If I’ve learned anything from my time away from work it’s that I’m content right where I am.  So much of our culture puts value on our level of busyness, and our commitment to constantly keep pushing forward on to the next big thing.  Why is it that stillness isn’t given the same value?  [I just finished listening to an amazing podcast about this very thing that I think all mothers should listen to.  It’s on the Another Mother Runner podcast and it’s an interview with Jill Farmer.  The title is about Time Management Tips, but it’s so much more than that.  Please, go listen to it.] There’s also a great piece by Glennon Melton here about this idea.

A lot of people asked me what I was going to do with my “sabbatical” this year.  There was an expectation from many people who I had to do something new.  I felt that pressure for a while too until I realized I was doing something.  Raising kids isn’t nothing.  It’s a pretty big something.  For the first time in a long time I am content right where I am and I don’t feel pressure to move onto something else.

Rather than picking resolutions or goals at the New Year, I’ve seen others choose a word to focus on for the year.  Seeing as how I’ve decided to stay put, I thought that’d be something I could get behind.  My word for the year is: Savor.

I want to focus on enjoying where I am in my life at this moment in time.  2016 isn’t going to come back, so let’s make the best of it.  My girls are only going to be this age this year, I want to embrace it.  If I choose to be here now there’s no telling what is in store for me.  I want to barrel into this year with eyes wide open to who I am right now and love every bit of it.

What is your word of the year?  If you don’t have one, what is it you want to savor this year?  How are you going to slow down and enjoy the world as it passes by in 2016?