Life's Essentials

es·sen·tial [ i sénshəl ] necessary: of the highest importance for achieving something basic: being the most basic element or feature of something or somebody defining: constituting the property or characteristic of something that makes it what it is.

Previously I wrote about living intentionally and being an active participant in this thing called life. One step I've taken in this is determining what is important to me and then attempting to work those things into my schedule.

This may sound silly, but when my day is so busy that it is blurred, my favorite thing to do is to take a moment and just breathe. I'm not talking about doing some major deep breathing exercises - although that is also good - but merely taking a moment to be mentally aware of taking a breath into my lungs and then releasing it out. It's like giving myself a time-out but in a good way.

Something else that I've incorporated into my life is PAUSE. For me, it is like hitting the pause button on whatever is on my agenda that day. I get myself a cup of coffee and sit on my glider in the family room (looking forward to moving outside to the patio when the weather warms up) and I read my new book. I'm not reading anything I haven't read before, but the Bible is organized in a different way in this book and I'm loving it. I don't get to do this everyday but I've been able to continue to chew and ponder what I've read and how it applies to my life until I'm able to pause again and read some more.

These are definitely some of my life's essentials.