2013: Opening Thoughts

Some updates, some thoughts, some future-thinking...

First things first:
Things are going well in Cancerland.
Sam rang the bell to signify the official "end of treatment" and we are breathing a little easier.

In other, unrelated news:

There's a new trend in "new year's resolutions" - choosing one word to inspire the upcoming year.

I like it. Because, like Calvin, I'm in no need of repair:

Ha.
Right.

So I've given this a lot of thought over the last few weeks. See how it's taken me until the 10th day of the year to even write the post?

I've decided that my One Word for 2013 is going to be COURAGE.

It's not that I want to banish fear from my life, since courage is often associated with fearlessness. On the contrary. I think that true courage is embracing the fear, holding on tightly to it, and running with it. The word courageous is bandied about to refer to people who do amazing things - but often even they themselves will say that they were filled with fear during those moments of courage.

But they kept going.

And since it seemed a little too complex to use "Not-Paralyzed-By-Fear-of-Unknown/Change/New/Different/Hard" - I figured I could shorten it up to COURAGE.

So what am I going to do with all that courage?
Hmm. That's a good question. I often feel that I get stuck in a routine, that I work on something that "works" and so I don't want to change it. I know that I look for new ideas, new plans, new projects ... but many of them get lost in words like busy, tired, overwhelmed....and I think that a lot of that is really just a list of secret names for fear. So I'm hoping to use my One Word to push back against those words that I use, and peel them back...and find some new courage.

There might be some new projects, and there might not. There might be some new ideas, and there might not. Maybe "new" is just a mask for fear of continuing with things the way they are. So maybe it works both ways.

Whatever it is - I'm hoping that this One Word will guide me. I might update you on what's going on with it. I might not. I'm still not sure how it will play out...and I think I'm okay with that uncertainty. I do tend to be fearful of not-knowing....so today's moment of courage is living in this uncertainty of what might be.

So as we jump into 2013 with both feet...what's your word?