New Year’s Reflection and Resolution As a Family

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Within my 39 years of life, I must admit that the year 2020 has held its own voice of the heart. One can say the number 2020 and there is a collective sigh of shared struggle that is understood and felt between one another. In light of thinking of a new year and naming words of resolution and of focus, I sense the pause that hearts are taking to fully trust that they can come to fruition as 2021 rolls into town. 

This is the reality, though, my friends.

new year

Yes, 2020 has brought its grandiose moments of winding roads and unexpected turns, yet it has also ushered an awareness of perspective that has drawn individuals and families to show up to matters of the heart in authentic ways. 

Keep dreaming and believing as you anticipate that this new year can still have meaning and purpose, despite all that feels different and stretched. 

This is how we celebrate and reflect on the new year ahead. 

Phones are turned off for the whole day. 

Schedule a day within the first week of January to gather as a family (TECH FREE DAY) and position yourselves to be uninterrupted and focused on quality time. This is a day where you have prepared your home the day before so that you are not needing to be busy with house chores and distracted from presence by doing tasks. 

This is a day of BEING and DREAMING together. 

Write out a food itinerary for the day as a family and prep before this day for what you need.

We choose breakfast and lunch at home and then go out to dinner, but you can choose whatever meal venue serves you best. Every meal includes recipes that we have never done before that we fix together, and we choose a restaurant that we have never tried. 

You will need a fresh journal, paper, or whatever you want to use to document throughout the year together. You will use this for the intentional conversation in your day. 

We begin our morning with a family breakfast and during this time we look back at the year together and reflect on places where we saw strength and growth, as we also voice the hard times we encountered as well. 

Each family member speaks a spoken strength for each person from the year that we can celebrate over them. This is an intentional time where a heart is able to hear that even though places may have felt stretched and torn, that growth was happening within those moments that hold meaning and purpose over their life. Write these places in your family journal. 

Depending on the weather, we plan a family fun activity. It could be a day of board games around the fire or outside on a family hike, etc., but it is a space during this day where we show up to celebrate a new year together. 

This is a family decision on what activity is planned and we do it together. 

During the day we are thinking about a word to share and discuss during dinnertime.

During our dinner, we open our journal that we started during our breakfast of shared words of affirmation and we discuss places of focus for this new year. It can be a word, goal, aspiration for the year and each person has a spot at the table where it is not rushed, but discussed between the family. 

Write out in your journal those places with some measurable goals to focus on together. Throughout the year when we see places of those words take shape, then we write it in our journal.

Example: Last year one of our kid’s aspirations was, “Try new foods this year,” so every time a new food was tried, it was journaled in our book. This is something that we talk through the following year as we do this resolution day again.

May this place of intentionality within your home be a source of strength as you begin a new year together.

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trishia
Hi, my name is Trishia and something that I value about my story is how my heart is outstretched throughout the world and I have many "homes" that fuel my soul. Being born and raised in Alabama, my southern roots remain a deep part of me. Living in New Orleans and then relocating to Cincinnati, post Hurricane Katrina, I learned how being exposed to culture and diversity can build empathy into a person. Married a generous, humble, hard-working man, Brett, from Cincinnati and then later moved to Kenya, Africa where our years spent working overseas has shaped my soul in more ways than I can articulate. We are now back in Cincinnati, investing in building a staffing company, and after 17 years of marriage are raising a 12 year old son, an 11 year old daughter, and a 10 year old son. Jesus is my anchor; I love quality time, sharing heart to hearts, traveling the world remains a passion; witnessing community loving one another well encourages me; photography is a lens I use to invest into the hearts of others at T Ralston Photography {www.framethejourney.com}

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