Today I ‘m rebelling against the prompts from Reverb and Resound 2011. What has caught my attention today is the word deliberate and the road that it can take you down.
de·lib·er·ate [adj. dih-lib-er-it; v. dih-lib-uh-reyt] Show IPA adjective, verb, -at·ed, -at·ing.
1. carefully weighed or considered; studied; intentional: a deliberate lie.
2. characterized by deliberation; careful or slow in deciding: a deliberate decision.
3. leisurely and steady in movement or action; slow and even; unhurried: a deliberate step.
4. to weigh in the mind; consider: to deliberate a question.
A couple years ago I began making some very deliberate choices in how I live my life and what I can do for the planet. I’ve documented some of those choices at my other blog Sustainable in Houston. With the prompts from Reverb and Respond 2011, I realize that I want to take some very deliberate steps to drastically alter my lifestyle. It means paring down what I own, using what I have, and engaging more fully than I have in the past few years.
This decision seemed to be confirmed when I picked up The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs
You choose your existence rather than sailing through life on autopilot.
The autopilot part of this comment made me think of not only of stuffing myself with food and rampant consumerism – I have almost more books, art supplies, and office supplies than God – but it also made me think about something Brene Brown said
We are the most in debt, obese, addicted, medicated adult cohort in U.S. history.
I can relate to the obese and debt part of the comment, and if I look at how I use food when I am stressed, angry or depressed, the medicated part applies as well.
So I spent lots of time on the bus this morning writing about what I think a deliberate life means to me. Being deliberate means weighing my options and looking at all the benefits and risks of the choice I am making. Being deliberate means choosing to do the hard thing when the easy seems to be better because it meets my long term needs. Being deliberate means opening up and being more vulnerable when I all I really want to do is pretend everything is OK. Being deliberate means setting boundaries and yet becoming more engaged and tied to the people, places and things in my life. Being deliberate means I am more awake, more alive, and I feel more rather than schedule myself to death and numb out in front of the TV or the computer.
I want to be awake and alive.
And if you haven’t seen it, take a few minutes and watch Brene Brown’s TEDxHouston 2011 Talk about vulnerability.
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Yay for rebelling and being deliberate, simultaneously.
I always think of the Henry David Thoreau quote when I hear (or read the word ‘deliberate’)
>>> ““I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.”<<<
You are inspiring!
Wonderful post, Paula! And I like your Reverb rebellion.
Like Julie, your words reminded me of that Thoreau quote… She’s even saved me the need to go look it up – haha!
Living deliberately… That’s an idea a person can really chew on.
I’ll have to hear the video later. I’ve got a sleeping husband beside me at the moment.
~Tui
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[...] been laying low the last few weeks. After realizing my word for 2012 was “deliberate.”, I started sorting and getting rid of clutter, as well as spending a large chunk of time figuring [...]