FMF: new

During this series, I'll be participating in Kate Motaung's Five-Minute Fridays. She issues a one-word prompt to inspire five minutes of writing. These short posts may not be anything spectacular, because the purpose is to write and post, without overthinking (or even that much editing). So we'll let this be what it is, and I'll see what I can do about tying in each prompt into my theme of living contentedly.

START. 

Contented living is in some ways the opposite of new. Temporally, perhaps contented living is enjoying what you have, without seeking more or bigger or better or, well, new.

But then again--and I'll stress this repeatedly throughout this month--choosing to be content is not settling. It is not passive acceptance of the status quo. And that, dear friends, may be very new to you. Contented living may be a new way to think about our minutes, hours, and days. It may be a new way to slow down and think and savor and live.

Just as the world glorifies being busy, maybe it also praises certain forms of discontent. (And later on this month I do plan on examining what productive discontent looks like, because discontent itself isn't inherently bad.) How many acquaintances and friends do we talk to who say outright, "Yes, I'm happy with where I am right here and right now. Right now things are good." Not too many. We say things like, "It's good, but."

That mentality is not new--it's everywhere. So today, in the spirit of contented living, let's revolutionize our spheres of influence and give ourselves--and those around us--the permission to simply be content, if only a little while.

END.

This post is part of a 31-day series on contented living. You can find the other posts here.