In celebration of one year (okay one year and a few weeks) of exploring Savoring & Serving, I asked the people who have been a special part of this year for me — from nourishing email encounters to life-changing healings — to tell, in 50 words or less, what they savored and how they served in the last 365 days. What a feast rolled in!
And if you would care to share how you savored & served in the last year, I will randomly choose someone to give a copy of The Life Organizer to as my thanks. Please comment by March 17. Luck of the Irish to you!
365 DAYS OF SAVORING & SERVING
I have savored : the satisfaction of hard work; deep connections near and far; being imperfect; teaching/learning what I most need right now.
I have served by leaning into pain and sharing what I find; offering the purest love I know to my children; witnessing, witnessing, witnessing.
Savored my artist heart by painting for a week in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and strolling through the incredible streets there. Served by daring to give myself what I needed. Learning that I can give so much more by filling the well.
Savor: Sunsets + hikes (+ sunset hikes!) + playing with our puppy, Zoey + baths and date nights w/my Goddess, Alexandra!
Serve: en*theos: PhilosophersNotes + Blissitations + Academy = Lots of wisdom + striving to create a conscious biz w/inspired team + thousands of scholarships + other goodies!
C. A. Kobu
I used to be stuck in the land-of-too-many-bright-ideas and the field-of-planning-for-excellen
ce. And then, I was infected by the-malady-of-trying-to-reach- everyone. But in the last 365 days, I took hard action bundled in velvety self-compassion. I sacrificed many good ideas and just focused on my greatest one. I decided done is better than perfect. I banked on my values and strengths. And I got crystal clear on exactly who I wanted to reach and influence.
Focusing on one thing, ditching excellence for brilliance, trusting in my values and strengths, and getting clear on my ideal people totally changed the way I savor and serve.
Today, I serve my kind: creative, courageous women with entrepreneurial spirits. I help them get clear, step into their power and give birth to their Life’s Great Work. And I savor every moment of it.
Interestingly enough, I’ve done more to savor and serve over the last year by practicing what I preach rather than simply talking about it. Teaching by doing is far more powerful — for all parties involved — than teaching by saying.
My service—raising a bunch of money and attention for some VERY deserving women and girls—turned out to be the thing I savored most. Surprise, right?
savoring…
writhing about in the sweet fragility of receiving for myself.
sipping thirstily at the time and space to express my heart’s deepest callingsserving…
confronting the shaky queasiness of fear and truth
offering my soul and laying bare my spirit
Eric Klein
I love when savoring and serving dissolve into each other:
walking the dogs
chanting with the band
offering the blessing at the Sunday service
drawing a dharma doodle
digging in the garden
talking with my Brain Trust
holding Aunt Sena’s hand as she drifts away
making fresh juice
cuddling Devi
breathing in . . . breathing out
When Jen first started talking about Savor & Serve, she called it “Serve and Savor.” I proposed that until we savor, we don’t know where we are most fully called to serve because our love, and often our heartbreak, call us to the greatest and most meaningful service for us. So in the last year, my intention has been to simplify to allow more spaciousness, and in the process serve. I’ve sold a second home and am now downsizing into an energy-efficient solar home in Santa Fe. Even cleared about ½ my closet knowing someone else is benefiting from my festive fashion fabulousness! Lot of letting go to release my time and energy for listening deeply to the call of my heart, which speaks repeatedly of savoring and serving our sacred earth and the four-leggeds I cherish.
I savored my husband with nighttime lovemaking — not our usual mornings — making me feel young, sexy, and more excited about the years to come.
I savored and served my daughters by practicing new ways of loving and cherishing their lives and what they teach me.
I served ME with new friendships (Jen!) and small acts of keeping promises.
Kristin Noelle
I’ve been writing and sketching my heart out to nourish trust as a worldview. A carton of raspberries, all to myself and eaten in one sitting, has become my favorite ticket to Now.
I moved to Kenya. I’m taking deep, belly breaths for the first time in years while I work & play on the world stage. I listen to fruit bats flying by, like the squeak of a rusty door, as they visit our banana tree at night, while I watch & reflect on my new life.
A confession: I am powerfully repelled by the word “service.” I have it wired up with servitude and subjugation and do-gooders foisting their missions on unsuspecting victims and unpleasant hierarchy-ridden volunteer jobs — to say nothing of years of subservience to this or that narcissist. (Which I no doubt sold to myself as “savoring.”)
Instead, I use the word “offering.” These days, I make a lot of my offerings in my kitchen, while wearing an apron — for some, the very definition of subjugation, but for me, purest savoring. In fact, I’m making some amazing torchio with cavolo nero right now. You should all come over for dinner!
Meg Worden
Valuing space more than stuff, faith over safety, freedom over rigidity and letting love be the unconditional witness. I dare say, it has been a righteous bravery, creativity and splendor that have knocked the motherlovin’ socks right off this year. For me and my gorgeous clients Savor. Serve. Amen.
My spine is aligned to serve. In 2011, I had nearly 750 coaching client hours. Total alignment for me. And, among all of that abundance, I found that I savored deeply,too. I savored deepening friendships. I savored those who chose to be of service to me. I savored breathing, and watching, and listening. I savored living.
Mindfulness and savoring life’s goodness daily.
Serving and healing from devastating loss of lives in 2011 through Community Resiliency Project.
Savoring profound response to Walking with Justice (letters from 7 U.S. Supreme Court Justices!) and how uncommon lessons are connecting thousands to their own call to lead, mentor, and serve.
Pace
The very best thing to preserve
Is to give me the love I deserve.
This love when unfurled
Can change the whole world.
That’s how I savor and serve.
Looking back on this year it is glaringly obvious that I was most of service and most able to savor when I was most honest: when I was willing to tell the truth, to rewrite a paragraph until it reflected the truth, to talk about the I don’t knows and the messiness.
The past 365 days has been a great adventure in the potential for savoring and serving through stories. I’ve read, written, spoken, shared and amplified stories as a way to savor the beauty of life and as a way to serve. It’s like advocacy with (he)art.
Every moment I spent with my nephew was savoured. He’s definitely teaching me to savour the smallest most tender moments. And every morning I sat down at my desk and made it business to serve my community the best way I know how — with words and pictures and stories and the truth.
Marianne, Susannah, and I will be savoring & serving up creative joy — hopefully with you! — come this June. Please join us and learn more here.
Now it’s your turn. What did you savor and how did you serve in the last year? I’ll choose a winner to receive a copy of The Life Organizer on St. Patrick’s Day!
