“Each morning I wake up torn between the desire to serve the world and to savor it. This makes it difficult to plan the day.”- EB White

Doesn’t this quote say it all?

As we approach the dawn of a new year, I might amend the quote: Each YEAR I am torn between serving and savoring.

You can guess what I’m going to say—our invitation is to live in this tension, not to solve it.

In maybe my favorite book of the year, Oliver Burkeman’s 4000 Weeks, he tells the ironic story of “The Happiest Guy in the World” who lives on cruise ships with every piece of laundry done by someone else, every meal prepared by someone else. There is such a thing as too much savoring!

And in a favorite film of this year, Medicine Man tells the story of Stan Brock, who started Remote Area Medical out of a sense of guilt and slept in a bedroll on the floor of the NFP’s headquarters until he died of cancer without telling anyone of his diagnosis. There is such a thing as too much serving!

Our soul is happiest, I think, when we are both savoring and serving—I wrote earlier about the Meaning and Pleasure Matrix. The wonderful reality is that when we take time to savor life, we find it more meaningful. And when we serve, we derive great pleasure from it. And the two can keep informing each other. Savoring and service, service, and savoring.

What are you end-of-year rituals? Do you write? Do you tabulate how many goals you have reached? Do you check in with a friend? Do you plan? Do you eschew the whole chronological time thing altogether?

Whatever you do, I hope you take some time to savor—to reflect on what you love about this world and your world. And I hope you take some time to serve—who needs what you have to give? How are you going to give it?

Writing this weekly newsletter has been such a perfect way for me to savor and serve at the same time. I enjoy sharing what’s been brewing in my heart and head, and I hope it serves you. Thank you for being here.

I’m taking a break for two weeks, and in January I’ll be back with my annual reading list and some tips for how you can take a solo retreat in 2023. May you be lovingly held in the darkness and in the light, friends.