If there’s an upside to living through a global pandemic and social upheaval that will hopefully bring about some critical change, it’s this: What we need, value and stand for has never been clearer.
Have you felt this sense of clarity too?
Have you found that by being forced to strip away nearly all that isn’t essential, you’re left with less, but yet what remains feels more significant?
There’s such power in this — in discovering what is necessary and good, prioritizing those things, letting other elements fall away and relishing that simplicity.
Especially while as our worlds are smaller, as we’re cut off from so many of the people and places and experiences that would normally fill our days, we have the opportunity to tune out distractions and refocus on what feels true to us and our families and how we want to live.
Paring down isn’t easy, but it creates this incredible foundation for what you’re all about as a family. And when you’re clear on what you value and need, you create space for the people, experiences and feelings that are most important to you — and ultimately for more joy, love, peace and goodness.
As you fill your time with those wonderful and essential things, you create a framework for how to live, in this current moment and well beyond it.
Katie Vaughn is the editor and co-founder of Northerly. She is a University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University-trained journalist with experience as a writer, reporter, editor, blogger and author. She lives in Madison with her husband, daughter and son, and is always up for an adventure.