3 Daily Habits
Time seems to move quickly. Monday starts the grind and suddenly it’s Friday. A month flies by. We’re celebrating a new year. Often life is ruled by the tyranny of the urgent.
Amidst the rush and hustle, there are a few moments that I love the most. Habits I’ve cultivated to ensure the things that bring me the most joy are amongst the building blocks that make up my life, that make up me.
Morning Reading
My absolute favorite part of the day are the moments right after my alarm clock goes off. I take 10 minutes to wake up, pouring hot water over my favorite freshly ground coffee beans in my Chemex. Steaming coffee in hand, I curl up on the couch with my trusty Bible and journal. The routine is generally the same- pray a Psalm, spend time in prayer, listening and reflection, and spend time reading, two chapters from the the Old Testament/narrative pre-Jesus, and one chapter from the New Testament/narrative post- Jesus.
Sometimes I bring questions or personal struggles into this time, sometimes this time brings questions or challenges to me, and sometimes I just enjoy the presence of God who meets me in this space.
Growing up, I remember walking downstairs every morning to my mom curled up on her favorite chair, Bible, journal and coffee in hand. It took me years to see the value of waking up early to make space for this habit, but I now cherish it for the freedom, peace, and joy it ushers into my morning.
If I could sit in this moment all day long, I would be a happy camper.
Good Morning
After the morning routine, I’m “off to work.” My commute is not to long… back to my bedroom! I’m still working remotely from home. As of June 2021, I’m still working remote. Maybe this is my new norm.
Since I’m working from home, the first people I talk to in the morning, other than potentially a sleepy roommate in the hallway, are my coworkers. I have two other ladies on my little HR team and everyday we start of the day with good mornings. It’s typically on Slack, though sometimes on a live video meeting.
Overtime, coworkers start to feel a bit like family and I enjoy these little check ins where I can hear about the progress of their garden, their parent’s health, the bike ride they took last night… before things get crazy.
Nightly Walk
I feel rested when I’m active. Hiking, running, swimming, even racking leaves in the yard give me energy. The function shifts, but the need for exercise does not.
My current post-work exercise habit is a nightly walk. Sometimes it lasts 20 minutes to the end of the block and back and often it goes on for 5 miles and takes an hour and a half.
This walk bookends the day mirroring the presence and reflection of the morning. I debrief the day, discuss it over with my God in prayer and often get lost in gospel music.
As a pre-teen, I often walked at night with my dad. He would take our Black Lab, Billie, for a long walk to get her energy out. He had a couple loops that were 3–5 miles long and I would never know which way we were going until we were turning or going straight. We didn’t talk much, but I cherished the time with him. Maybe this is why I’m drawn to walk at night.
I find peace and refreshment in this quiet outdoor exercise.
Future Habits
I have lots of other habits that I “want” to do, but currently do not practice. I’d love to learn Arabic and have a Rosetta Stone gathering dust on the shelf waiting for me to spend 30 minutes a day to start learning how to connect with neighbors locally and globally.
I love weeding the garden and intend to spend even 15 minutes at the end of every work day pulling up weeds in rotating areas. Weeding is so spiritual. Pull weeds up daily and it’s easy. Forget about them for 3 months (or 5 years) and they grow such deep roots you have to use a shovel dig them out and unearth all the soil around it. A daily weeding habit would keep my yard (and my soul) fresh.
I’d love to get to a pool to swim laps and exercise my whole body all at the same time (and then sit in the hot tub for 20 minutes to decompress!).
Great thing about habits is they start one day at a time. Maybe this time next year I’ll re-write this post in Arabic with a fresh list of new habits.
