Thoughts for 2016
I love a new year. I know it's cliche and you can start anything whenever you want. But there's something wonderful about a fresh start in January. Maybe it's the excess in December that makes the blank slate that is January so appealing to me. Maybe it's because I'm a deeply visual person and I see the calendar pages flipping in my head, stacking up to December and then, whoosh! starting all over again in January.
I really like the One Little Word tradition; picking a word that means something to you for the year. It can be a goal or a motto or just a breath word to be said quietly when life is hard. Some years, the word has been building up as I approach the new year. Some years, the word is a reflection of what I've learned the past year. This year, my word is Abundant. My family all slept in till 9am on January 1st and we had a slow, easy morning. I sat at our big family table with my new devotional, (thanks, Candice!) and a notebook and some coffee and a good pen, (essential). Healthy me has always spent mornings this way and I've gotten away from it for a long while. It felt really good and familiar and yet, was changed. Darby stole my notebook and doodled the cutest little princess mermaid you can imagine while I read and thought. Lucy wanted in on the action, so we gave her another notebook and pen and she scribbled away, narrating the story she wrote as she went. Sometimes, when I very much want to spend time with myself, my girls' love can feel like a burden. But yesterday, they felt like friends. They felt like they were sharing in my time and growing and learning alongside me. Something clicked as I looked up and saw their earnest, innocent faces on either side of me. I saw abundance.
So often in the last several years, I've felt the lack of things rather then the gift of them. I've felt that I lost something that was integral to me. I've known that it was my way of looking at life, of always expecting the best and seeing the best. Instead, I've focused on the hard things, I've been cynical and I've been constantly preparing myself for the worst. In some ways, I was raised to survive. When something is broken, I find a way to work with it being broken instead of fixing it or getting something new. Instead of seeing myself as able to get over an obstacle, I've become strong enough to carry that obstacle with me, as heavy as it is and as clumsy as it makes me. I've held things too close for fear I would never see more.
I don't ascribe to the warm and fuzzy laws of abundance, at least not completely. I don't think that by thinking I will get a million dollars, a million dollars will come to me. But I do think that there's something about the energy you put into your world reflecting and drawing good things back to you. Maybe it's as simple as when you believe good things will happen, it's easier for you to work for those things. Or when you see the best, the hard things just don't matter as much and affect you less. Whatever it is, however God and the world works, this year I feel open to it. I'm choosing abundance; choosing to see and expect good in my everyday. I wish the same for you, friends.
I'd love to hear about your thoughts for 2016 in the comments, too.
I really like the One Little Word tradition; picking a word that means something to you for the year. It can be a goal or a motto or just a breath word to be said quietly when life is hard. Some years, the word has been building up as I approach the new year. Some years, the word is a reflection of what I've learned the past year. This year, my word is Abundant. My family all slept in till 9am on January 1st and we had a slow, easy morning. I sat at our big family table with my new devotional, (thanks, Candice!) and a notebook and some coffee and a good pen, (essential). Healthy me has always spent mornings this way and I've gotten away from it for a long while. It felt really good and familiar and yet, was changed. Darby stole my notebook and doodled the cutest little princess mermaid you can imagine while I read and thought. Lucy wanted in on the action, so we gave her another notebook and pen and she scribbled away, narrating the story she wrote as she went. Sometimes, when I very much want to spend time with myself, my girls' love can feel like a burden. But yesterday, they felt like friends. They felt like they were sharing in my time and growing and learning alongside me. Something clicked as I looked up and saw their earnest, innocent faces on either side of me. I saw abundance.
So often in the last several years, I've felt the lack of things rather then the gift of them. I've felt that I lost something that was integral to me. I've known that it was my way of looking at life, of always expecting the best and seeing the best. Instead, I've focused on the hard things, I've been cynical and I've been constantly preparing myself for the worst. In some ways, I was raised to survive. When something is broken, I find a way to work with it being broken instead of fixing it or getting something new. Instead of seeing myself as able to get over an obstacle, I've become strong enough to carry that obstacle with me, as heavy as it is and as clumsy as it makes me. I've held things too close for fear I would never see more.
I don't ascribe to the warm and fuzzy laws of abundance, at least not completely. I don't think that by thinking I will get a million dollars, a million dollars will come to me. But I do think that there's something about the energy you put into your world reflecting and drawing good things back to you. Maybe it's as simple as when you believe good things will happen, it's easier for you to work for those things. Or when you see the best, the hard things just don't matter as much and affect you less. Whatever it is, however God and the world works, this year I feel open to it. I'm choosing abundance; choosing to see and expect good in my everyday. I wish the same for you, friends.
I'd love to hear about your thoughts for 2016 in the comments, too.
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