Joie de Vivre: My Priorities for Joyful Living in 2025 and Beyond

Photo of Pike's Place Market in Seattle | Photo by Joel Mott

2024 has been a year of change for my family. I have struggled at times with saying good-bye to old things and embracing all of the newness and uncertainty we have faced as a family. If I’m being totally honest, there have been days were I’ve wanted to crawl under the covers, block the world out, and succumb to my fear.

But alas, I can’t do that. I’m a mom of three boys. Even when I am having an off-day or off-season, the show must go on for them. Which got me thinking. Actually, a series of events got me thinking. On one particularly dreary morning, I had to volunteer for my scheduled time on our new school’s traffic duty. I didn’t want to be there, but as I opened car door after car door, greeting kids with a fake and cheery “Good Morning!”, I realized that I actually started to feel REAL cheer and joy. A few days later, my kids had the day off from school. They wanted to be lazy, I wanted to be lazy. But instead, I forced them into the car and we spent the day at Pike’s Market. What started out with fighting and misery ending up being so fun as we walked along the new Seattle Waterfront, watched the fish mongers toss the fish, ate lunch at a new pasta shop we’d never heard of, and indulged in some delicious Hellenika frozen yogurt. 

These two events got me thinking about Joie de Vivre, a French term that expresses an exuberant enjoyment of life. I used to think that Joie de Vivre came as the result of participating in big, extravagant events. Maybe something along the lines of changing the world with my career, going on a big romantic trip, partaking in some fun event with some massive group of friends, or some other big expression of joy. None of those things have ever actually happened to me and I always felt that I was missing out. I don’t know why it took me until the age of 41, but this year I discovered that taking small steps forward, committing myself steadfastly to even the small things (like writing this blog post), or stepping outside of my little bubble for a brief moment was just so refreshing. 

So here are a few of the small things I’m prioritizing through the rest of 2024 and 2025 to experience my own Joie de Vivre:

Attend church regularly

We got away from attending church regularly during the Pandemic. While churches were closed, we’d watch services together online. But as those online services wound down and all of our kids’ sports commitments ramped up, we spend a good couple of years only attending sporadically. Recognizing a need for God, for community, for a spiritual discipline, my husband and I recommitted ourselves to attending weekly this fall. We’ve found it so refreshing! Our commitment to a Sunday church service dictates our weekend schedule. It meant that we paired back on all of the unnecessary sports commitments, we weren’t as focused on filling our Saturday social calendar since we need to go to bed at a reasonable hour, and our Sundays are now dedicated to church and lunch as a family. It helps that the sermon series has been spot on this Fall, but also taking the time to study the topic covered in the sermon has also enriched our family discussions and mindset through the rest of the week. I know our culture has moved away from belonging to a church, but it has been so life giving for us!

Journal weekly

I don’t regularly, if ever, journal. I’ve always thought it a bit tedious, but at the same time, I find myself regularly bursting with so many thoughts and feelings that I never express. Or only express to my poor husband. Or I just let them fester and stew in my soul. But I read the other day that while venting with others actually doesn’t relieve the emotions, taking the time to process those thoughts via journaling has tremendous benefits. So I am going to try to take an hour or two once a week to write down whatever deep and not-so deep thoughts I’ve been noodling on. Consider this blog post my first journal entry. We’ll see how it goes!

Read physical books

I mostly I just doom scroll these days and when I occasionally read, it’s on the Kindle app on my phone. It’s an entirely sterile experience that and I’ve become too addicted to my phone. I’m going to try to break that habit by moving my phone away from my nightstand and picking up a physical book before I go to bed.  I want to smell the pages and earmark my spot. I want to turn on a reading light and cozy up under the covers at night for a little escape. First book on the list, The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni

Explore Seattle’s creative scene

We spent the month of August this year in Europe and I found it so energizing. I want more of that vibrancy and creativity. I want to get out of my little ex-urban mom bubble. I am not exactly sure how I am going to do this yet, but I’m exploring a membership at the Seattle Art Museum. Or taking floral arrangement classes. Or studying art history somewhere. I’m open to ideas!

Structure my sleep routine

Admittedly, I stay up too late and no longer wake up before the kids to start my day. This lack of discipline developed during the Pandemic when I started working remotely and continued as I left my corporate job. There are a lot of things that I don’t miss about my old corporate life, but I do crave my old structure and sense of time. Moving forward, I’m going to start structuring when I go to bed. It’s lights out by 10 PM moving forward! My hope is that by adding this structure, it allows me the capacity to be more creative throughout my day!

Volunteer in small roles at my kids’ school

I just signed up to volunteer in my kids’ school store and help out with their auction. These aren’t big acts, but adding small acts of service, in community with others, is a great way to think less of myself and more of others!

What activities do you prioritize for your own Joie de Vivre? What else should I think about adding to my list?