Word for the Year

by Deborah


Choosing my word

Last year, I chose a word that I hoped would act as a guide for my thoughts and actions for the year.  I chose the word receive.  It's a good word.  For me, it is a reminder to encourage openness.  To let things in, to feel, and appreciate, and allow. 

And I have received much over the last 12 months.  I received love, a new home, healthy children, a loving husband, new friends, new adventures.  The only problem is that I realized that I wasn't all that specific about what I wanted to receive.  So, although I received an abundance of good things, I also received a healthy dose of hard things.  Sometimes the hard thing and the good thing were the same thing.  And you can't really prevent some hard things coming into your life, and it's better to receive them from a place of openness than to be clenched and closed.  So I would say it was a good word.

But I realized that what was lacking for me was focus.  I didn't zero in on what I wanted and work toward that.  While it is beneficial to be open to all the general things life brings, it is so important to have clarity on what you want and to laser toward that, to invite that specificity into your life.

So that is my word for this year.  Focus.


That other word is FOCH.  Not....well, it's FOCH, ok?
Geez, seriously, focus, people.




I want to focus.  Which means listening to myself, figuring out what I want, and then having focus.  Which means discipline.  I hope I can bring some discipline, order, focus, clarity to my life this year.  Those aren't always characteristics we associate with the desire to live a creative life, but they are actually essential.  I can be as messy within my creative space as I wish, as disorganized and crazy as I can possibly be, but that should be contained within a structure of discipline.  I should write a short amount every day, or craft every Thursday, or go to dance class once a month, or whatever I feel like really matters, but there has to be consistency and discipline for the benefit to accumulate.

So, for example, I used to always start my posts with a picture of the blocks Emily gave me.  I loved doing that.  Haven't done that for a long time because of the move.  I would like to start doing that again.  Only hold up?  Can't find my camera.

So that's the first thing I'm going to focus on.  Where the heck is my camera?



Nope, that's not my camera.
 

And maybe organize a few other things while I'm at it.  (Craft room, I'm looking at you.)

Focus.

What do you want to focus on this year?