I can’t remember the last time I made a New Year’s resolution. And I never really understood that trend to pick a “word” for the next year.
Yet here we are. With a word to help guide us in 2022.
But it means way more than I’d ever imagined. And I think it has the potential to change our lives.
How it began
It all started with Brian, strangely enough. He loves a good story and, apparently at some point found himself with a list of over 300 anime shows he wanted to watch. And a list for books. And manga. And video games. There were a lot of stories he was looking forward to consuming.
Because of that, he recently found himself trying to rush through the novel he was reading just so he could get to the next one. But, at some point, he realized that brought with it a problem. He had read so fast that he had rushed over a major plot point and suddenly didn’t understand the book. Embarrassingly, he wasn’t even sure when that had happened so he didn’t know where to go back to find it.
That’s when it dawned on him. This rush to get to the next thing was making him miserable. He needed to slow down.
What he needed to do was savor.
Our word for 2022 — savor
Brian said he almost didn’t tell me about the idea of having a word because he thought I would make him write a blog post.
He knows me too well. 😂
But, kind wife that I am, I thought I’d spare him and write it myself.
Savor is the word. Savor is what we’ve already started doing.
And I can already feel its power working almost like magic.
Savor stuff we already own
I love it. Thinking about savoring stuff around our home helps me remember to enjoy the things already in our possession.
- Savor the ingredients we already have in the cabinet by using them up rather than buying more
- Savor the vitamin supplements we bought at some point during my extreme Eloise diet and take all of them before moving on to the ones we used to take
- Savor the DVD collection we already own of great movies and shows rather than renting or streaming new stuff
- Savor the books already on our shelves by reading what’s there (read or unread) rather than buying new
While this may just sound like “savor” is code for “declutter”, this goes way beyond decluttering for me.
Savor life’s beauty
There is so much out there that it helps to meditate on.
Savor the crisp winter air outside.
Savor the view of snow into our backyard.
Savor my morning coffee — sipping it slowly and paying attention to its flavor.
Savor the way the sun hits our kitchen in the morning.
Savor the ride back to the house by taking the long way through the forest road.
Savor the musician I love by listening to just one album on repeat for awhile.
Savor the magnificent Christmas tree I passed on my way home by stopping to stare a little while.
Savor the song of the European blackbird or the cries of the seagulls when they return in a few months.
I could go on and on. There’s just so many beautiful things in life to savor.
Really, though, most of all, savor Eloise
Brian and I talked about this week that, if we were going to put percentages on it, we’d estimate around a 30% chance that Eloise will get severe brain damage at some point from a really bad seizure brought on by illness in the next few years. And we’d guess we have a 15% chance of losing her before the age of 7 (even though actual statistics are as high as 33% when it comes to losing someone to a long seizure, and probably higher when you count kids like her that pass away from other ailments like pneumonia brought on by accidentally ingesting liquid into their lungs when eating).
When you look at it like that, our odds don’t look super great. Which is why our estimates of awful things that have an all-too-high likelihood of happening could cause us to panic or worry.
Instead, though, at this very moment, they only drive me to “savor” Eloise all the more, because there’s really no promise darker times won’t come.
Savor Eloise’s little voice letting us know she’s up from a nap.
Savor her giggles that seem to come from nowhere.
Savor how much she loves it when we put her hands on our face.
Savor the way her little legs are constantly kicking and going.
Savor how well she pays attention to the book pages as we read to her — especially at bedtime.
Savor her little grunts of protest when we’re not feeding her fast enough.
Savor her insistence on putting her fingers into her mouth all the time (including during meal time).
Savor how excited she gets to eat by opening her little mouth wide and making sure we know she’s ready to eat.
Savor how proud she is that she can hold and drink out of a sippy cup with a straw — even though the thing is almost as big as she is and half the liquid ends up on her shirt.
Savor how magically she calms down when she hears Wheels on the Bus, even if we make up entirely new verses all the time.
Savor her need to constantly be held since we came home from the hospital after her big seizures in early November.
Savor the fact that sometimes she just needs a little mom or dad snuggles to get her to fall asleep.
And savor her precious, precious grin. And the laughter that lights up our world.
You see, because even though every parent has a chance of losing their child to something horrible, we are up against a way higher than normal probability.
It’s way too likely that we could lose some or all of her. So we need to do the best we can to savor our little Eloise. In case the worst happens.
The word savor is a good one for us. I hope we adopt its principles far beyond 2022 and that it makes us better parents, better spouses, and all around better humans.
Hoping you get to savor the beautiful things in your life a bit more this year, too.
Hugs from us.
Mallory, Eloise, and Brian
Eloise The Tiny Fighter 
BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Happy Healthy New Year!!!
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