Having it All

Today, I set up an interesting lunch scenario which ended up with a very interesting question asked of me.

Lately, I've wanted to be intentional with the limited time I have with my close friends. In an effort to do that, today I brought a friend to lunch with a list of questions I wanted to know of her. They were questions like, When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? and Have you learned anything new about yourself in the last year? 

And after all of my questions were answered, on our walk back to the office, I was asked, What do you hope to learn in the next year? What do I hope to learn? Well...umm....

There are certainly things I plan to learn this year. I am a grad student after all. I will undoubtedly learn about my field, about research procedures, about students. And although those are important things to learn, I'm not sure those are things that I really want to learn....have a real desire to learn. I will probably learn more about balancing life, school, work, relationships...something that I've been learning for the past eight years or so. But I think what I've determined I really want to learn is how to have it all. I know that maybe sounds smug, but that's what I want to learn. I want to learn how to enjoy life; how to be intentional with time, with my relationships; how to balance time, hobbies, things I enjoy; how to get a lot of work done, a lot of homework done, a lot of cleaning, gardening, cooking, reading, running....

It sounds impossible right? Well, I want to learn about how to make it possible. And I want to do it all with joy. I think it is possible. And that's what I want to learn about this year.

All in all, my lunch today with my friend was amazingly enjoyable. We talked about all sorts of questions that helped me get to know her and her get to know me with intention, with purpose. We laughed, reflected, sighed with contentment. This lunch was the kick-off party to living with intention and learning how to really have it all. Who wants to learn along with me?