This photo is from 2 weeks ago . . . I guess the good news about a blog break is that I have a backlog of special photos to share with you. The story behind this photo is that Dale and I had taken Jackie grocery shopping and he fell asleep in the car on the way home. I managed to carry him in and lay him on our bed and he didn’t wake up! It was a pre-Christmas miracle, for certain.
I hope his dreams were merry and bright and that’s what I hope for your first weekend of 2020, too.
You know when I’m writing a Three On Thursday post that I’m truly back to a blogging routine . . .
Today I’m sharing three things I’m feeling grateful for right now.
Those are just 3 of the things I’m feeling grateful for today. I hope you are also feeling grateful, too, because I think it’s one of the best feelings there is.
Happy New Year, friends! As has been my tradition for the last few years, I am choosing this day . . . the first day of the year . . . to share my One Little Word for you.
And my word is open.
This word first came to me back in the early fall. I was doing a guided meditation and was visualizing a box that was just for me and in that box was a gift. The gift I found was the word open. It just floated right up from that box like a helium balloon.
I immediately dismissed it. I decided it was too early to choose a word for the next year. I decided I didn’t really like that word anyway. I decided that my visualization was just about that moment and not about anything more than that.
You know where this is going, right? The word open just kept coming back to me. And honestly, the more I resisted it the more it persisted. I finally gave in the other day when I read something about how resisting a word can be just as important as instantly embracing a word.
So here I am with the word open. Still feeling pretty uncomfortable with it but also knowing that being uncomfortable is actually good for me because that’s when I have breakthroughs. That’s when I grow. That’s when I find new ways of doing things.
That’s when I open up.
I simply can’t let the year come to an end without acknowledging and reflecting on my journey with my 2019 One Little Word: story.
I’m pretty sure I say this every year but it was the perfect word for me for the last 12 months. I feel like I truly connected with it on a daily basis, thinking about what I did and did not want to include in my story, whether that meant experiences or people or just the thoughts in my head. I used it to go back and work through some childhood trauma, I used it to reconnect with the idea of blogging and how much it helps me to share my story with all of you, I used it to remind myself to slow down and pay attention to my life.
In January, when I first wrote about this word, I asked:
what’s my story?
how do I tell my story?
what are the stories that impact my life?
Those questions are as relevant now as they were 366 days ago. They remain open ended because my story isn’t finished yet but I have learned so much about what my story is and how I want to tell it. As for that last question, the stories that impact my life are something I can’t always control and predict and that’s a difficult thing for me to accept. But here’s what I’ve learned this year: even when I can’t control my story, I can always choose how I respond to it.
Since I started choosing a word for the year my words have been: joy, grace, shine, peace, kind, and story. Of those words, joy and peace have truly stayed with me in a very meaningful way and I still reflect on them frequently. I am now adding story to that list because I know it will continue to guide me.
Are the start of the 2nd week of Christmas break. And that’s just fine with me.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were lovely times with our family and friends. There were moments that were sad and difficult, as I knew there would be, but the love of those who matter most in the world was all around us and it made all the difference.
Since then we have been hibernating a lot. Reading books. Knitting. Listening to music. We did venture out on Saturday to see Bombshell and then we went to a local restaurant afterwards. I almost said let’s just go home because I knew we’d see people that would want to express their condolences and I sort of didn’t want to face that. But I decided it would be better to be present, to open myself up to receiving kindness, than it would be to hide at home. I was right and we saw a whole bunch of people we know and it was fine. Comforting, even.
I’ve got things on my list that need to be finished this week. Errands to run. A New Year’s Eve dinner with friends to prepare for. Thank you notes to write. Catching up on end-of-the-year stuff like updating Ravelry, sharing the books I read in 2019, finalizing my 20 in 2020 list, you know the drill.
It feels good to share with all of you again. It feels right to be back in this space. It makes me feel like me again.
And that’s a really good thing.
