Not one to usually seek out a ‘word’ for the new year when a word seemed to find me, I felt unprepared. Last year the word ‘abide’ keep showing up, knocking on the door until I recognized it and decided to sit with it for a while. Maybe ABIDE was my word for 2020? I didn’t ask for a word, but words have seemed to find me. As others began talking about their word for 2021, I thought little of it; after all, I wasn’t one to have a word for the year. Words are my thing but having one word to claim as my own has never been my thing. Yet, a word seemed to arrive at my doorstep, asking to be invited into 2021.
INSPIRE, this word seemed to find me, and I knew it was to be my word for 2021. This word arrived so quickly, yet once I accepted it, it felt so cumbersome. How do I inspire others when I have no idea what my next right thing is for 2021? I’m merely moving one day at a time, floundering to find a long term vision for my projects, writing, and long term purpose. Right now, I have several potential blog posts sitting unfinished, unedited. I’ve written out titles, picked topics, but words don’t seem to want to flow. I’ve made plans, but plans change or feel forced. How do I claim the word inspire when I feel anything but inspired right now?
Looking for a book to read, uninspired by the ones currently sitting on my bedside table, I scan my book self. ‘One Woman Can Change The World’ by Ronne Rock calls to me. I should be writing, working on projects around the house, but I decide to permit myself just to be. To soak in someone else’s words rather than struggling through my own. Before I had even finished the introduction, I had tears streaming down my face. This book is the reminder I needed as I begin the new year.
We are often asking ourselves, what is our purpose, what are we meant to be doing? The greater goal is something I battle daily, the pull to live a life of doing things. Doing things and losing myself in the tasks, forgetting it’s about being. Life doesn’t demand one great purpose for our stories. We do not have to be one thing, do one job, fill one role. Most of us couldn’t just be one thing if we tried. I had been looking at this word all wrong. I had been asking myself what I was supposed to do with this word, what my purpose was. When all along, I have been saying it’s not about doing; it’s about being. Being fully present in the life we have, living well a life lived on purpose.
As I read through chapter after chapter as Ronne tells the incredible stories of women who are changing lives, these women didn’t seem to wait for a vision statement or business plan. They see needs, have passion, have compassion, and just do the next right thing. They opt to live well right where they were, with the resources that they had.
A new year brings new beginnings, a clean slate, and even if we tell ourselves we will live one day at a time, it is not an easy task. It is so easy to fall into the trap, the pressure to get this year right, to live it well. It can be complicated coming out of a year like 2020 with so much still unknown about 2021. Yet, Ronne’s stories have reminded me that I don’t need to have elegantly thought out words, blog post themes, and inspirational social media posts planned out or strategically in order. Random Reflection was born out of a desire to share the stories and thoughts randomly. Plan too much, add too much structure, and I can quickly lose the heart of my words.
My word for the year is not a box I need to fit into, a resolution or task that needs to be accomplished. It is merely a word, a word that reminds me to be fully present, right where I am.
Breathe in today; take the pressure off to look too far ahead. Living well isn’t about having a well laid out plan, a well-defined purpose for your life. Living well is merely seeing the needs of today and responding with the resources you already have.
What does today need? What do I need for today?
