Monday, January 5, 2009

Word or words of the year

So I have been hearing about this idea of picking a word for the year. Supposedly it is to replace making a resolution or go along with your resolutions. Anyway, you are to find a word that best describes what you want to have 2009 mean for you...

So many words...so little time!!!

How do you pick one word to sum up a whole 365 days? A year can be a long time, so many things can happen during that year. The word that grabs your imagination in January may not have anything to do with May or July...

So how about a word for each month? There is an idea...

So I narrowed my January word down to five...(yeah, decision making; not my strong point!)

JOY-
who couldn't use more joy in your life
I definitely need more joy, or expressions of joy in each day.
AWARENESS-
I need to be more aware of others and the needs and feelings of others
I am aware of the needs of those near me, but what about those I meet
on the street, in the mall, on the job. I need to become more aware
of the world around me and its inhabitants.
CREATIVITY-
Finding my creativity again will be a year long quest
I have forgotten where I stored it. I once felt creative
daily, but now, not so much. So the search begins...
GROWTH-
Spiritual growth tops the list of things that need growth in my life
next will be growth through learning, reading, studying, and seeking.
I also need growth in the part of me that stretches toward others
not staying so self-centered, but reaching out beyond my "comfort zone".
By nature, I am a recluse, yes, I have admitted it. I accept this part of myself that longs for isolation. I use to feel this was a major character flaw, but now I embrace it and dream of one day retiring to a little mountain village, a mountain village that has high speed Internet access of course,...but for the most part I could become a hermit.
I could very easily live in a cabin in the mountains and be perfectly content living there, growing a garden, crafting, cooking, reading...etc. Of course I would have my family there with me, and I would come down from the mountain cabin to explore and do some shopping...
but I digress...
GRATITUDE-
Every day needs to begin with Gratitude and thanksgiving. I am trying to pay more attention to the things I do have than those I don't have. I want to show gratitude to God and to those around me. I am so very thankful for the many blessings of God. I acknowledge that every good and perfect gift in my life comes from Him. I am already very humbled, thankful and acknowledge that without Him I am nothing and would have nothing. But I want to be more literal with my Gratitude, I want to notice the little things in my life for which I am thankful.
Today, I am grateful for the comfortable warm bed that I crawled out of with much hesitation this morning. Remembering the homeless person that I passed sleeping in a doorway downtown.
I am grateful for my children who are safe and healthy. Thinking of the mothers who's arms are empty or for those sitting in hospital rooms beside very sick children.
I am grateful for my husband, who in spite of the wet, cold weather, rose before daylight and left us sleeping while he went to his job, so he can provide for his family. I think of so many this year who have lost jobs due to the economic downturn.
I could go on this way for the rest of the day, but I am sure that you get the jest of my gratitude. I could spend the whole day being grateful and not get anything done around here.
So this is a rundown of my "Word(s) of the month" idea. Try it! See how one or two or five words could change your whole outlook.
Quote of the Day
For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice~
T.S. Eliot
The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul~
G. K. Chesterton
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day~
Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Okay, so maybe decision making should have been my word for the month!

2 comments:

Daniel Brenton said...

This post was highlighted in the January 5th edition of Gratitude Watch.

Thank you for promoting the value of gratitude.

Anonymous said...

I'm better off not to decide things - LOL!

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