Heidi’s Word of the Year 2024- in reflection

Presence

If you didn’t get a chance, read last week’s blog all about Heidi’s vision for 2025. Every year she chooses a word to strive to emulate in the months ahead, a theme, a pattern to hold herself to. Always evolving and building on past words, she is reflecting on what her word of the year taught her in 2024. 

In 2024, my word of the year was PRESENCE; actually it was a repeat word from 2023. 2023 was the first year of the cafe being open and so unsurprisingly, it was a tough year to strive to be present. In 2023, while I desired presence in my life, my priority inevitably became working, building our business, and taking care of a million little details at any given time that go into starting a cafe from scratch! It brought with it moments of presence- getting to hear customers’ stories and responses to the cafe’s opening, spending time with the community at our backyard concerts, and taking adventures with our family… but at the end of 2023, I felt like I hadn’t fully nailed my word and decided to carry it over to 2024. 

As I reflect back on 2024, I can pinpoint exact experiences of intentional presence. We took our big trip out west- flying to Portland with the kids for a 9 day trip. We rented a campervan and explored Oregan, Washington, and California. During this trip, I embraced living fully in the moment with my family, not allowing my mind to drift to my to-do list waiting at home or events in the future. For me, I don’t struggle with spending a lot of time thinking about the past but I can often get distracted with thoughts of the future. I’m always dreaming about what could be next for our business and while it’s important to envision the possibilities, it can sometimes steal me from what I’m experiencing in the moment I’m actually living. 

By the end of 2024, I was able to recognize some outside influences inhibiting my ability to be present- which is part of why I chose goals like limiting social media time and taking a sabbath (intentional break from work) one day a week as I head into 2025. For me, thriving (my word for 2025) includes being present- so it is definitely a theme I’ll continue to carry into the next year. 

In 2024, there were more moments where I was embodied- aka mentally where I was physically paying full attention to the people in front of me. To be thriving means to be present where you are, physically, not always thinking of things happening in the future and stuff you have to do.

Another aspect of presence for me, is being more present in my faith, and relationship with God. 2023 was a year full of hard things for us and in 2024, I set an intention of being more mindful of God’s presence in my life and committing to making time to spend time in reflection, opening the door for my faith to grow with my acknowledgement that God is with me. 

While important to set goals for the year ahead, it is just as crucial to pause and reflect on where we’ve been and allow it to inform us as we navigate the present. After a slew of years filled with change, both anticipated and unexpected, through it all we can hold the power of presence: enjoying the people in our lives at this moment, the version of ourselves that we only have for right now, and the experiences that will eventually turn into our best memories.