I took the weekend off from missions to spend some time with family. Had a wonderful time catching up with cousins, aunts and uncles, and playing with the littles. Here’s a photo of my mom on my brother-in-law’s bike. A highlight from the weekend 🙂

A big highlight was the entertainment. And by that, I mean all the kids. They kept us in stitches. I title this image “Here honey, how about you chew on this instead of that stick”

Anyway, I’m caught up on missions through Saturday. Here’s the summary.

Whom do I envy?

Envying someone indicates that they have something I want. While one should not wallow in envy, recognizing it and determining what it means to you, can be healthy. In my not so professional opinion. So, who do I envy?

• People who can be completely themselves, comfortably
• People who travel
• People with kids
• People with more free time to engage in hobbies and spend time with friends/family
• People with more energy than I

Yes, I understand that several of those comments likely contradict each other. People with kids aren’t doing so much travel, feeling energetic, swimming in free time…but I sure do want those littles anyway. So what does this mean for me?

• I need to continue my journey to become who I want and know who I am
• I should take the time to plan important trips.
• Oh, the kids thing. This one is complicated. But I have some decisions to make. And I should give time to think about them and make decisions. Until then, I’ll be an engaged godmother to my 4 godsons.
• Stop working so much at home! I have to do it. Give myself a “me night” to engage in activities that satisfy me
• Figure out this sleep thing once and for all. Keep exercising. And get to bed earlier.

Consider proverbs to help identify how you see the world

This mission was to review a list of proverbs and see which ones resonate with me. The idea that those you identified could give some insight into your world view and priorities or values. You can see the complete list here. The ones I like are:

• In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy
  • I take away from this that all situations lend themselves to meaningful action
• The fox condemns the trap, not himself
  • This seems to me to say “you can’t blame others for your mistakes”.
• What is now proved was once, only imagined
  • This resonates with me and makes me think about all we’ve learned and achieved as a people that was once only a thought. Also, that one’s individual dreams for a different way of life are possible.
• Every thing possible to be believed is an image of truth
  • This one struck me as particularly meaningful. I am working on recognizing that what other’s believe is true to them. And that even if I think their belief is wrong or based on false information, there is a reason they believe it that may have merit.
• If others had not been foolish, we should be so
  • Here I read that we can learn from our history and from other’s experiences/mistakes.
• Exuberance is Beauty
  • This one excites me. I LOVE to see other people get excited about something. It feels like a gift to witness. And I feel it deepens my connection to and understanding of them. Its so raw and honest. I’m working to recognize this in myself.

I noticed several of these are about learning or wisdom. Both things that are important to me. I love to learn. I love to teach. It’s important to me to understand. Other things I recognize in this are the importance of self-responsibility and truth.

Am I more attracted to Simplicity or Abundance

This is described as being drawn to subtraction, emptiness, bare surfaces, few choices or being drawn to fullness, overflow, collections, many choices. I’d have to say I’m more comfortable with simplicity. Too much stuff makes me uncomfortable. I’m prone to purging. But in order to purge, I must have had too much to start out with. Also, I seek out multiple choices. More than I reasonably need. Maybe the answer is I’m really living in abundance, but striving toward simplicity.

Up next will be a list of things I’ve said I’ll do or focus on during the first 1/2 of my 21 day project to know myself better. I’m sad that I haven’t been blogging as much. I know all my handful of readers are waiting anxiously for each post 🙂 I’ve been struggling with sleep the past few weeks. And its been hard to find the energy to sit and put my thoughts into words. But this process is important to me. I will continue to make it a priority, as much as I can anything right now.

Thanks for reading. I hope that some of these missions inspire you to try your own. I really suggest the exercise on envy. It was a great one. And a good conversation to have with my husband about who/what he envies.

-Teresa