Each year during the last week of December, I reread a book that has had an impact on me—The Not So Big Life by architect and author Sarah Susanka—and engage in her year-end review: https://susanka.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/The-Year-End-Ritual-Exercise.pdf. She applies home design principles to our lives: How do we want to inhabit our lives?
In her year-end review, Susanka poses simple questions for us to respond to (What films moved me this past year? What journeys have I taken?), challenging questions (What were my sorrows and disappointments from the year, and how have I been changed by them? What part of myself am I giving birth to?) and tougher questions (If I could sum up all my desires and longings into one simple statement, spoken from the highest aspect of myself, what would it be? Who am I, really?).
By engaging in this exercise for six consecutive years, I’m more attune to how I live my life and how I want to live it. I can’t hide from myself. When I reread past responses, I see growth, but I also see myself learning and relearning some of the same lessons without growth—yet.
Sunday Journal Prompt
How do you live your life? How do you want to live it?
