Voice was my choice for 2017, and I think it will continue to be a part of my journey for a while. I want to continue to cultivate my voice and to speak out for what I believe is right. However, I wanted to choose a new word for this new year.
I usually meditate and try to let a word find me. If one doesn't arrive organically, I read through the list Alli Edwards puts on her web site. (She is the one who started OLW for me afterall.)
This year will have many life changes.
*Our youngest is graduating from High School in June.
*He is trying to decide between 3 colleges, but will be going to school in the fall.
*Our oldest has decided he doesn't want to be an engineer. So, he is taking a break from school this semester as he decides what he wants to be and where he wants to go to school. Unfortunately, the school he was at was for engineering, so he has to switch schools as well.
*June will mark 7 years that my husband and their father has lived 2 hours away. He comes home on weekends and has never missed a birthday or concert or special ceremony, but he has lived away from us. Once the youngest is done with school there will no longer be a need for that to be necessary. We will be selling this house and moving to where he is.
*Since we are moving, I will no longer be working at the school I have been at since our youngest started kindergarten. Leaving this job and finding a new one will be challenging, especially since don't think I can continue in education. I just can't condone how education works any more.
*28 years of marriage this year
*I turn 50 in the fall
What word would take all of this into account?
Embrace.... I am not in the frame of mind to embrace each of these major life changes
Accept...I do but I don't want to focus on the change with a word like accept
So those words and their ilk wouldn't work.
I thought of Brave and Bold and they may make a side appearance, but I'm not brave enough or bold enough to face all of this so confidently. So proactive hero type words are out.
Faith based words felt too passive.
I am a planner. I know where I am and I know where I want to be. I can see the other side of all this change. I can.
And I am good at knowing the steps it takes to achieve a plan.
But knowing and being patient enough to step on each step of the path are two different things.
Steps. Steps help to focus on the now and the next. I get bored with "next" and often end up miserable because "then" isn't next.
Plus the obvious -- I need to lose weight, so steps will get me there both literally and figuratively.
Lastly, the camp that helped form and change the trajectory of my life as well as that of my husband and is now working on doing the same for both our boys, has a song called One Step at a Time. The chorus goes: I'm climbing my mountain
Step by step
I'm climbing my mountain
Day by day
I'm climbing my mountain
All the way
I'm climbing my mountain
I'm gonna make it....
One step at a time
One step at a time
One step at a time
With Jesus by my side
....
I'm climbing my mountain
One step at a time.
So in 2018 my focus will be Steps.
