Curating Life with Loving the Ordinary Lists

How did these Loving the Ordinary lists come about for Curating Life? The idea came about as a way to build a life to cherish who and what we hold dear. Where our values and goals are met daily in enjoyable, simple ways, these lists, eBooks, and now Membership is how I came to curate my life.

Curating is a big, fancy word, maybe not used very often, but it’s the word I searched for when trying to find a word that describes how to build a life. Curate means ‘select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition).’ And we are doing just that by selecting, organizing, and looking after our life, home, and interests. These Loving the Ordinary lists help with monthly and seasonal ideas and inspiration.

We have so many options every day to do, see, hear, and watch in the course of our day. Additionally, we have our to-do list along with many pressures and responsibilities. We need to curate – to select, organize, and look after our one life daily. In other blogs, I spoke about this in Curating Life and How to Live A Carefully Curated Life, CCL. With this blog, I want to touch on how these Loving the Ordinary Lists and eBooks help to Curate a Life.

Curating Criteria for Monthly Loving the Ordinary List

Overall, these Monthly Loving the Ordinary Lists, eBooks, and Membership include a little of each item below to select from – 

• Loving ourselves, our family & friends, our home, our passions, our careers, our community, our world as we choose.
• Exploring new ideas, places, food, hobbies, health, exercise, traditions, and styles. Try out or build on what we know, then decide if this fits how we wish to live.
• Designing our homes, our gardens, our lives, our futures, our style, our seasons/holidays, our everyday routines for what works in our lives, how we wish to live, and taking out what doesn’t.
• Creating meals, occasions, and traditions as simple or extravagant as we wish for every moment.
• Enjoying nature, whether it is putting our hands in the soil, watching wildlife or a sunset, or saving the planet, as much as we can to our interests and abilities.
• Making time for our interests, our joys, and our pleasure so we can fill our souls.
• Being present in the moment, day, week, month, and season. Significantly, being present in our lives is where the magic happens if we are there to notice it.

With the list and eBook, I can blend what is important to me into a flow where I enjoy special moments, everyday activities, and seasonal fun. An example from the 31 Ways of Loving the Ordinary in a Year List is to ‘walk through a winter garden to admire its beauty.’ To begin with, this could be done alone to enjoy the solitude your soul craves after a busy holiday season. Secondly, it could be with a gardening friend to chat about the plants and how you can bring the ideas into your gardens. Lastly, this could be a structured tour through a Botanical Garden to check out a new interest in gardening or photography. 

How you can use the lists and eBooks to curate life:

1. You can select one or more ideas to try, then. 
2. Place it (organize it) where you need to go at this moment in your life. An hour spent, afternoon, day just put what interests you in your calendar.
3. You decide how it fits in your life and if it stays in your life (looking after).

Now, I know this can sound large and audacious. But these monthly lists and eBooks are meant the other way – small and meaningful. These lists are for when you have a moment to pause and enjoy your day – loving the ordinary daily. Or if we have a free afternoon, we take a moment to do something that fills our soul. A list of ideas won’t take much time and energy. Some ideas may be, “Tried it, not again,” or “I’d like this to be a tradition.” The main goal of these lists and eBooks is to inspire you to enjoy your month.

I start the Loving List monthly blogs with these words: ‘Every month, I create a list with ways for Loving the Ordinary each and every day. That is to say, it is a list to help you enjoy life by carefully curating the days filled with home, garden, and life. Take time to enjoy the moment alone, with someone special, or with a group of friends.’ Please remember that as you enjoy the lists and eBooks.

That is what led me to create the Curated Life Membership. Membership in the community, learning together, sharing ideas along with friendship. Lastly, all this is about doing something to make the ordinary day extraordinary. To be inspired by these lists and eBooks to curate a life you enjoy is my wish for you. Please let me know if they inspire you; I want to hear.