2020

“Maybe sometimes we should just sit, and in the sitting understand that life speaks in stillness and therefore on occasion we would be wise to join it there.” 

Craig D. Lounsbrough

I’ve stepped away from my desk these past few weeks.

Part of this time was filled with year end appointments and procedures. It surprised me how each event took its toll, both mentally and physically. The time remaining I declared  “my time.”

I rested, read, and began the search for my word for 2020.

My word was actually pretty obvious once I was still and listened. My word is “self.”

I wasn’t comfortable with this word, questioning and feeling it was a very selfish word choice. After a lot of internal debating, I realized the source of all the questions and creating such uneasiness.It should not have surprised me–I’d been listening to all those old critical voices and judges I spent most of my life believing.

As I became aware (my 2019 word) where the uncertainty came from, I knew I’d found the best word for me.

As I began the second day of the new year, I knew I was ready to sit, write, and share.

“You don’t need to wait for someone else to notice your talents before nourishing them. You don’t need others to accept you to feel accepted. You don’t need to wait. You can begin, at any moment, to work on noticing, nourishing, and accepting yourself. You can work on being a better friend to your reflection. You can start listening to yourself like you wish other people would. You can become curious about who you are. You can begin to learn the language of your mind and body so that you can decode it, understand it, speak it. You can work on understanding yourself instead of always trying to make yourself into someone else.” 

Vironika Tugaleva, The Art of Talking to Yourself

I am…

B…simply being. 

~Peace~

The Journey Continues

“A new year always comes with a new hope for a new beginning, but new beginning is not only starting something new, it is more about improving upon things not going right or went wrong last year. After all, it is a just a new date, the journey continues!” 

Shahenshah Hafeez Khan  

The first week of the new year is almost over and I’m still wondering what I want to accomplish in 2019.

As I began to read and write today, another blog caught my eye. That’s not unusual–I read Nicole Luttrell’s blog, Paper Beats World, often. Today’s article seemed to be directed right at me. In “Raise a glass, then make some plans,” Nicole shares her personal experiences with goal making while offering simple steps and suggestions for creating plans of our own.

One thing really stood out for me. Nicole makes the observations that many of us jump right into making plans for the new year without stopping to think about the successes we had the previous year.

As conscious as I am about being grateful, I never once thought of taking the time to think and then celebrate my accomplishments of 2018. With that missing step, I was using what didn’t go well as the basis for what I wanted to do in the new year. I had to shake my head. Was it any surprise I couldn’t form a firm plan when I my thought process was based on those negative events?

Thanks, Nicole, for giving me that ah-ha moment.

“With the new year having just begun, many of us have tried to change our habits, all of them, all at once. The best way to change your habits is to change them one at a time, to start small and gradually work your way up. Choose a habit, whether it be to stop doing something or start doing something, and focus all your time and intention on that habit. If you start trying to split your attention between multiple activities, you will soon find that you lose your motivation, focus, and energy. Small regular actions are far more beneficial than large irregular actions.” 

Avina Celeste

I am…

B…simply being…

~Peace~