Although the calendar says January 2, our little family is still in holiday mode. The Christmas decorations will remain up until sometime next week. Caroline and I are extending our homeschool break a bit further. We’re planning to pick up a few of the easier subjects to get some things done starting on Monday and then will resume the normal routine the following week. 

I decided there was no reason to rush back into normal life. We have the opportunity to create our own schedule and rhythm and so we should. Both of us could use some more down time after the activity surrounding the holidays. I think I went more places in the four or five weeks leading up to Christmas than I went in the previous four months combined. (I’m completely serious.) It was all enjoyable and fun, but by the end I was longing to be home with my own thoughts and no holiday-related details to deal with. 

As I’ve been contemplating the months ahead, the two words that came to me were curate and hibernate. Both have come up in my writing before. This time, though, I’ve been thinking about them a bit differently. And I think they overlap beautifully. 

Many years ago, I wrote an entire post about our experience with what I called Hibernation Homeschooling. This time I’m not thinking primarily of physically being home for weeks on end to avoid further illness. I’m thinking about hibernating from much of the online world. I can’t disappear from it entirely and nor would I want to. But I have already radically cut back on what I am doing and consuming. There are many things I enjoy online, but it is time to withdraw and hibernate away from them for a season of rest. So in my FreeTube I unfollowed several YouTube channels that can be a bit noisy or provoke stronger negative feelings. The channels will still be there if/when I return in a few months, but for now I’m ready to not go to those places mentally with those creators. 

The word curate also came up about a year ago in Curate Your Home | Cozy Life Reset – Day 12. I like having the idea of curating my home guiding me as I go about my homemaking. I spent quite a bit of time curating my home last year. We made lots of lovely changes around here in the process that have added to our peace and happiness overall. 

This year I am making my curating focus less about the physical world and more about the mental and emotional. So I have already begun curating my life in terms of what I read, watch, and listen to.

So what am I curating? I’m deliberately choosing more things that are analog and real as much as possible. I’ve simplified my calendar and planner for this year. I’ve curated my email by unsubscribing from many mailing lists I know don’t need for the next few months now that Christmas is over. I’m spending less time reading digitally and more time reading real books with a highlighter in hand. 

None of these changes are spectacularly different from how I usually live life. After all, I already live a pretty quiet and simple life. The difference is that I’m being deliberate about them and reminding myself that curating my life emotionally and mentally is making room for that which is better and best. In the process, I’m adding more mental and emotional margin to my life which is always a good thing.