Word for the Year: Embrace

 

It's been eleven years now since I began the practice of starting the new year with a word to set the tone for the 365 days to come. If I'm being honest, this past year I have been wrestling with the attitude that King Solomon expresses in the Bible: that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). 

Another year of coming up with a word for the year: check. 

Another holiday tradition completed: check. 

Another book read: check (60 last year).  

Dishes and laundry to do: check. 

Food to shop for and cook: check (never-ending checks). 

So many things that make me feel like I'm just spinning along on a hamster wheel of life.

Here's the thing though, even with the mundane-ness of everyday life, those checks also give comfort and stability. The traditions I'm busy trying to check off my list are things that draw my family closer together. They are the things that anchor us and connect us to each other. Weekly things like church provide stability when life feels a bit off kilter. Routine? Yes. But they are also comforting. 

In recent years I stopped doing some of the things I loved in the past because they felt more like chores. I stopped blogging –– it felt like I was just writing about the same thing all of time. I stopped experimenting with recipes, even though I love to cook –– too much complaining from the peanut gallery. Jack and I quit doing our weekly hikes –– there were lots of excuses like the weather and effort to pull it off each week. (To be clear, our family still had a lot of amazing adventures, but my attitude felt off).

One of the definitions for embrace is to accept or support a belief / theory / or change willingly and enthusiastically. 

This year I hope to work on embracing life as it is now. In the doldrums. In the day-to-day as well as in the moments that are more exciting. I want to embrace life where I am at. Motherhood is a beautiful place. I want to focus more on:  "Finding the extraordinary in my ordinary."  Even in the days that are ordinary, there is beauty to be found in each moment. I hope to embrace those things and find a greater degree of contentment in the every day parts of life this coming year.  

As a secondary thought, I am taking a cue from Disney's Queen Elsa and working on letting some stuff go this year. Every year there are things that need to be let go of. Pride. Expectations. Sometimes relationships. If it was meant to be in my life, it will come back. I'm working to embrace the harder parts of growing up and also parenting.

Words from previous years: 

Fortitude {2010} │ Adaptation {2011} │ Patience {2012} │ Deliberate {2013}│ Joy {2014}│ Peace {2015} │ Release {2016} │ Savor {2017} │ Healing {2018} │ Be {2019}