Singing Brook Christmas

I’ve written multiple times about our family’s work for more disconnected time, and in particular about our adoption of a 24/6 approach, which we termed “Singing Brook Days.”

Full disclosure: we’ve struggled to implement them regularly since school started. And I miss them deeply. (Sounds like a New Year’s Resolution is in order!)

We are in the middle of one today – starting from our family traditional Christmas Eve Jolabokaflod (Christmas Eve book exchange) and through our Christmas day of gifts, food, and family.

I’ve been reading Annie Dillard’s classic The Writing Life in the last few weeks, and of course I paused at her most famous quote: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”

Today is about presence as well as presents, and how I’m spending this day is how I want to spend my life: focused on what I value.