Today’s card says: Choose to stop and pay attention when they ask a question. Whatever else you are doing can wait. Everything else can wait. It seems urgent but it is NOT.

Well this one is mostly about my kids. I want to choose to stop doing the other things and really focus on them when they talk to me. Not always. Sometimes it’s ok to do other things. But enough times that they remember how much I love them, how much I valued them, how I made them feel.

I want to pay attention to the moments. With Jake, with my parents, with my sister, my nephews. My friends. My boys. Even myself. I want to pay attention and listen to the people around me the way I listen to my coaching clients. With curiosity, openness and rapt attention. I want to know more, dig deeper, connect.

I can’t think of any better way to show love than to gift people with my most precious item: my time.

I feel especially in this day and age, time and attention are the most valuable assets we have. And it’s something I want to choose to give to the people I care about the most. (Not to the loudest, most annoying or the most urgent.) Work will never end, worries will not stop, my thoughts, my brain, CNN and all the other noise in my head is endless. So there will never be the perfect time to give my attention to those I love.

I have to choose to make the time.

None of us have time. We all make time for the things we care about. Choosing to listen to people is also about making time. About showing them that they matter. That they are worth your time.

That I am choosing them.

Choosing Means is a Monthly Project for May 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

Today’s card says: Choose to see the magic in the ordinary. These little moments are the ones you will miss the most when it’s all over. Sitting together, laughing together, holding hands. Be grateful.

Oh the loveliness of the everyday extraordinary.

Years ago, when I first started scrapbooking, it became quickly obvious to me that what I loved the most was preserving the tiny, ordinary moments of our lives. I liked holidays and birthdays just as much as the next person but I also didn’t forget those ever. I did forget the fleeting moments of ordinary life. The particular phrasing my kids used when they were little. The way David said destruction instead of construction or the funny crawl Nathaniel had before he walked were all moments that would have come and gone if I didn’t take the time to somehow capture them.

The taking of the photo and writing down the words allowed me to etch these moments deeper into my memory. I feel like life, especially my life, passes by so quickly, so fully, that it’s easy to miss these magical ordinary moments.

And, by definition, today’s ordinary moments are so different from tomorrow’s because life’s constantly changing and along with it, our definition of ordinary changes. This is the same reason I do a week in the life or other similar projects that capture the ordinary. It’s one of the reasons I chose this word this year. To remember to choose these little moments. To remember to choose to create opportunities for these moments. To spend more time together being in the ordinariness of everyday life so that these moments are more likely to happen.

I am so grateful for my ordinary life. I am deeply grateful to get to spend moments with my amazing husband, my wonderful kids, my growing array of friends and my one and only family. So here’s to choosing the everyday. Here’s to not taking those precious “ordinary moments” for granted. Ever.

Here’s to the extraordinariness of ordinary life!

Choosing Means is a Monthly Project for May 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.