New Year - New Outlook

The buzz on the blogs and scrapbook sites is all about two hot trends, both focused on the new year.

The first is the kind of movement that drives me crazy. In theory, it sounds good. It is called Project 365. The idea is to take a picture every day of 2009. It could be of anything, a sunny day, your coffee cup, the dog, slippers, computer screen or of course, people. Then you must scrap them and journal them so you have a lasting record of this year in your life. It sounds creative, nostalgic and CRAZY! Good grief, who needs more pressure, more things to do, more guilt about not getting them done? It looks like a set up for disappointment to me. I won’t get sucked in to that one!

The second trend is sort of like a New Year’s resolution, but simplified. You choose One Word to symbolize the changes you want to make in the new year. The word can encourage you, remind you of a goal, inspire you to create or whatever. I am not an introspective person. I’m more of a “what’s next on the to do list?” kind of person. I admire people who have time for self reflection, personal goal setting, and internal conversations but I just don’t have that kind of time. So I thought – One Word. That’s quick, easy, sort of inspirational. Maybe I could do that…

But it is a lot harder than it sounds. I know what I want to work on. I want to appreciate the life I’ve been given. I want to cherish my children and adore my husband. I want to enjoy the home we work so hard on and spend so much money on. I want to have less activities and more hanging out time. I want to enjoy my days, not just make it through them. I want to stop feeling guilty that I can’t do more – more cleaning, more activities, more things for the kids, more yard work, more PTA stuff, more blogging, more entertaining, more sewing. Every new activity just adds more guilt and pressure and disappointment in the end because I expect more of myself. I want to let go of always “doing” and just be content with “being”. I want to be proud of what I accomplish and not critical of what I haven’t. I want to celebrate my wonderful life, family, house, job, church, friends, and creativity.

Does anyone have One Word for that?

Here are some choices: Content, Adore, Delight, Renew, Treasure, Release, Trust, Value, Accept, Cherish, Joy, Shine, Sparkle (don’t know how to apply that one, but isn’t it a happy word?), Listen, Peace, Relax, Simplify, Appreciate.

Do you see the irony? Here is an opportunity to make a complicated resolution into a simple, memorable, encouraging reminder. Simple. Easy. Quick. But instead, I can’t think of a word that is good enough. So there is one more project that is hanging over my head, that I just can’t pull it all together and get it done. I can’t make my life simple because it is not. I can’t finish a project because I just can’t accept that it is not perfect. Maybe I need counseling. Maybe I should just pick a random word and live with it as an exercise in accepting my life the way it is. How about Hotdog?