2021 Word for the Year

Friends: It took me a bit to settle on my Word for the Year this year. With all the mess that was 2020 I think we need to cut ourselves some slack. There is hope on the horizon and it looks like there is still much to wade through until we get there. That in and of itself is overwhelming. So, I am just going to do Today. I can’t worry about tomorrow or plan for next month. Worry and planning with an asterisk is exhausting.

What can I do today to move me forward? What can I learn? What can I feel? Hope? Imagine? The cliche’ is Today is all we have. I don’t know about you, but that sends me to the jar of M&Ms for comfort. What if I bend it a little…I have Today. It’s not ALL that I have, but I do have today. What will I do? What joy will I find? What will I write? What will I hear? What will I say? So many things I can do with Today.

Tomorrow, I will start over again; not with today’s plans but with tomorrow’s very own today’s plans. Building weeks into months into a year where I will again be working out a word for the year. A string of 365 todays where Monday doesn’t rush through her sister, Tuesday, to get to hump day, who skips her brother, Thursday, to get to Friday which means nothing like the Fridays before we all worked from home.

365 days of grounded attentiveness to what one can experience Today. It’s not a free-for-all like this is your last day — but a day rooted in the now. Wringing everything out of Today. And looking forward to what the rest of the year’s todays have to offer.

Forward 2020

Well, January, here we are again. A stunning number of things have happened since the last time we met. I spent the year of 2019 in discovery. And I liked it. I won’t bore you with the details. I found many of the discoveries were just me facing my truths. A big one is my inertia. I’m a thinker. I love to sit and think. Often this translates to writing, but not always. And almost never when I want it to! Thinking is relaxing for me. I sort out the day, my feelings, to-do lists, plan my days and get excited about what’s coming next. Before I know it, it’s time to move on and my to-dos aren’t getting to-done. This lack of execution is not new and hardly unique to me. It has never really bothered me until I stopped working full time. When I was working I had reasons creating wasn’t happening. Busy. Remember, busy? Now I have the luxury of free time. Unstructured free time. Time that meanders from this to that, exploring, revealing, and not to-doing. I enjoy meandering, meandering creates space and breathes life into ideas. And now I would like to meander to somewhere. Produce something. I don’t want to get lost meandering and lose the gift of time to create.

So, this year will be about moving forward. Even an inch. Moving forward towards the to-dos that mean something. I’m writing a book. Did you know that? I am! In the days, weeks and months of 2020, I will be moving forward in writing. Even if it’s a paragraph at a time. And while I don’t do resolutions, I am asking myself each day, “Did I move forward today?”

In my meanderings the other day I saw a quote that felt like a framework for forward…

And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.

Libba Bray from The Sweet Far Thing

One moment at a time. This is how I shall move forward. One moment at a time.

Shout out to Anne Lamott and Irish Whiskey for writing inspiration.