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Fresh Start : Creating White Space

1.13.2014 • 3 Comments

1f5179ce4f9688a134f0f2f01794ea23Happy Monday everyone! Today, Erin Carroll, of Blue-Eyed Bride blog is sharing about white space. She blogged about this in the fall and I just loved the concept! Before we dig into things about the home and life this week, I thought this was the perfect place to start! 

erin headshot 2I love the idea of a new year. A blank canvas. An empty calendar. A notebook without scribbles. The very first days of something with the potential to be spectacular. A year begins with white space.

I explored the concept of white space for 31 days last October. I woke up thinking about how to have more white space, what I could get rid of, what I could quit, and how I could appreciate everything I have and stop wanting more.

What I found is that if I sit down and narrow down my passions, my purpose, my loves and my talents, and then I compare that list to my calendar and my to-do list, I’m overwhelmed by the excess. I had too much. Too much of everything.

Too many pieces of clothing in my closet. Too many toiletries in the cabinets. Too many books and photos sitting on the shelves and collecting dust. Too many items on the to-do list that sucked the life out of me, and too many commitments on the calendar.

I started to purge. I donated, I sold, and I stored. I took a look at everything in my house. If it wasn’t functional and if it didn’t help tell the story of our family, it had to go.

And then I quit. I started praying and asking God to reveal to me which things were for me, and which things could be turned over to someone else. Someone with more passion and intention for that specific commitment. (I’ve always been a yes person, and my calendar had become full of yeses and had absolutely no breathing room for the most important relationships in my life.)

We moved into a new house just before the end of the year, and I have the blessing of kicking off 2014 full of white space. The space will be filled up soon. It will get messy. I’ll get stressed out and overcommitted. But by starting off this way, I’ve allowed room for that. My soul has room to breathe. My body has room to move. My mind has time to rest.

But, most importantly, I’ve allowed time to invest in people. The white space is giving me room to host families for supper at our home, and stop what I’m doing to have good chats with my kiddos. I have time to have long conversations with friends that live in other states.

Sometimes when I see a bit of empty space or a blank wall, I have the tendency to find something to fill it up. But that empty space gives me so much peace. White space isn’t forgotten space. It’s full of intention.

Here’s to a fresh start in 2014, and giving our hearts a chance to breathe.

12This post is a part of the FRESH START series. A three-week series to get you ready for 2014. Each week will have a different theme, mind, home and body. 

Previous Posts:
Intro | Catherine Guidry’s Goal Making | Using the Powersheets | Become a Reader | A Morning Ritual 

Erin Photo | White Space Photo

 

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Comments (3)

Love this post! I’ve become such a purger, so much so that not being able to purge certain things in my classroom actually drives me crazy lol.

[…] thrilled to be guest posting today over on the Val Marie Paper blog as a part of Valerie’s Fresh Start series for 2014. I […]

Thank you for having me, Val! I’ve learned so much from your other guest posters this month. I love this series!