One Little Word...2015

I recently went back and looked at old blog posts, pre-blogger, Typepad posts.  When I started blogging, I paid for my platform. When you pay for something, I honestly think you value it more. Initially, I blogged about scrap booking, about healing from a traumatic loss, about life, and then I got involved in design teams. Most of my posts were design team related. One by one, the design teams fell away; my life changed; my interests changed...the blog, for the most part, sits silently in cyber space. But every once in a great while, I remember it's here, and so I post.

I've had the flu. Being ill for an extended period of time tends to make me introspective. It's also that time of year, the time when you think about resolutions, goal setting, dreams...

Now, at 60, I'm so incredibly aware of how fleeting life is, how very fragile we all are, how valuable the moments are. One of my friends asked what my OLW is for 2015. I paused. For the first time in a few years, my word hadn't made itself known to me. In fact, I hadn't given it a thought. My 2014 word, ENOUGH, was always in my mind's eye, but, honestly, I did little with it beyond April. My first thought was GIFTS, to focus on life's gifts, on gratitude. Though I do plan to continue writing in my gifts journal, it just didn't feel like THE word, my ONE Little Word.

My daughters have joined me on this journey for the last few years. Each chooses a word, creates a vision board, reads, writes and paints her word. I hadn't mentioned it this year, but the other day, my eldest sent me this link in a text  http://www.susannahconway.com/word/. I clicked on it...a free "course" to help find your word. I signed up. Today was day 3. The exercises are great. Today's lesson had me narrow my list to five, but the word that emerged as I worked through the prompts was not one of those five. It was the key to the five!

NURTURE

It literally found me as I was trying to put my goals, my hopes and dreams for 2015 into words. I started with RELATIONSHIPS, CONNECTIONS, FAITH, CREATE, LOVE...

And what I discovered is that I want to nurture these, all of these! 

I have two more days of lessons, two more days before I nail down my OLW. Today, however, I had an epiphany.  This is oh, so very fitting. Tomorrow IS epiphany, a day that marks the end of the Christmas season, the day my mother got her wings four years ago. This feels like a GIFT- I like that connection, too. It's as if all words lead me here. This year, I will nurture my relationships, my friendships, my faith, my creativity, my own growth and the growth of those I love and care for.