Did any of you make New Year’s resolutions? Or answer copious questions for reflection from 2022? 

I started down that road, but it overwhelmed me. I decided to ask what—on the most basic daily level—I needed in order to love God, love myself, and love my neighbor in 2023. 

As a result, I turned the corner into 2023 with two intentions. One, to resume a regular peaceful rhythm of prayer and exercise. Two, to return to a daily practice of two hours of uninterrupted deliberate work. 

2022 included a lot of days where I sprinted through my “contemplative” moments in the morning, and sometimes eked out twenty minutes of running or strength training before a day of addressing a series of seemingly endless and relentless demands and distractions. 

We will be moving in 2023, so I could put all the work involved in purging our current house of embarrassing amounts of unnecessary clutter at the top of my list. But it is exactly this type of urgent demand that I am working to right-size. The organizing and decluttering and moving and unpacking will all happen. Inevitably. But if I don’t prioritize prayer, exercise, and deliberate work, they will become like dandelion puffs I try to snatch out of the air as they float to the ground and disappear. 

Unhurried prayer, exercise, and deliberate (rather than reactive) work will help me return to love. 

What do you need in order to return to love in the year ahead?

More with Amy Julia:

• S6 E9 | Spiritual Timekeeping in a New Year with James K. A. Smith
• Big News for the Becker Family
• Looking Back Before Looking Ahead

If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to receive regular updates and news. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Goodreads, and you can subscribe to my Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast on your favorite podcast platform.