A New Year, A New Word
At the end of 2012, I reflected on the year I had just survived. It was one marked with obedience to God, both failing to be obedient and succeeding. I was determined to not just survive, but to live and thrive in the year to come. And to do so I realized I didn't have to wait until the end of the year to look back on whether or not I had succeeded. I could decide in January who I wanted to be and how I wanted to live in the coming year.
So I claimed "one word" to help guide and define me. My "one word" in 2013 was EMBRACE. Each day I lived with intention, embracing everything from pajamas to expiration dates, boundaries to answered prayer, triathlons to hibernation. That year gave me the confidence, the readiness, the opportunity to walk across Spain as a single woman in 2014 and again with my husband in 2015.
Those experiences also allowed me to live with intention, but in a very different way. Particularly in 2014. From day 1 on, I learned that what I intended to happen that day, on that walk, in those places, never came to fruition. So each day required me to intentionally let go of expectations, control, plans, desires, in order to embrace anything and everything that presented itself that day. By day 9 of a 63-day adventure, I'd thrown away my plans altogether.
Which was a beautiful and exciting way to live. But it worked much better when I was walking across Spain than it does in my everyday, ordinary life. My day-to-day life is not filled with bread trucks and communal meals, detours and hard decisions. If I sit around and wait for those things to present themselves, my day will instead end up being about emails and dog walking, laundry and whose turn it is to do dishes. Which are all necessary and all things that I enjoy, but there is also so much more to do with my days.
So this year I am claiming the word INTENTION. Because I want my day-to-day life to be more intentional, to be filled with people and things I love -- dates, hikes, books, blogs, church, others. And because I know myself I know that I will also have to intentionally lay aside my plans and expectations this year to allow God to work. Whether it is an impromptu visit from the kids or a last minute work project, a surprise vacation or cancelled plans. Some days I'll have to be intentional about not killing my mother-in-law's dog which has peed on every square inch of our house (luckily it's a small house!) and other days I'll get to be intentional about enjoying a snowshoe walk with my husband.
Whatever comes my way this year I INTEND to enjoy it, to learn from it, and to keep moving forward!
So I claimed "one word" to help guide and define me. My "one word" in 2013 was EMBRACE. Each day I lived with intention, embracing everything from pajamas to expiration dates, boundaries to answered prayer, triathlons to hibernation. That year gave me the confidence, the readiness, the opportunity to walk across Spain as a single woman in 2014 and again with my husband in 2015.
Those experiences also allowed me to live with intention, but in a very different way. Particularly in 2014. From day 1 on, I learned that what I intended to happen that day, on that walk, in those places, never came to fruition. So each day required me to intentionally let go of expectations, control, plans, desires, in order to embrace anything and everything that presented itself that day. By day 9 of a 63-day adventure, I'd thrown away my plans altogether.
Which was a beautiful and exciting way to live. But it worked much better when I was walking across Spain than it does in my everyday, ordinary life. My day-to-day life is not filled with bread trucks and communal meals, detours and hard decisions. If I sit around and wait for those things to present themselves, my day will instead end up being about emails and dog walking, laundry and whose turn it is to do dishes. Which are all necessary and all things that I enjoy, but there is also so much more to do with my days.
So this year I am claiming the word INTENTION. Because I want my day-to-day life to be more intentional, to be filled with people and things I love -- dates, hikes, books, blogs, church, others. And because I know myself I know that I will also have to intentionally lay aside my plans and expectations this year to allow God to work. Whether it is an impromptu visit from the kids or a last minute work project, a surprise vacation or cancelled plans. Some days I'll have to be intentional about not killing my mother-in-law's dog which has peed on every square inch of our house (luckily it's a small house!) and other days I'll get to be intentional about enjoying a snowshoe walk with my husband.
Whatever comes my way this year I INTEND to enjoy it, to learn from it, and to keep moving forward!
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| 2015 ended with travel, family, hikes & making friends with random strangers at state signs. All things I hope continue in 2016! |
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