New Year, New Plans

{this moment}

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Opportunity

Opportunity is knocking at your door.

It's a new year. Clean slate. And this year seems like an opportunity.

Most years I look at the changeover as just another day, and while that is true, this year feels different somehow.

I see options and opportunities instead of frustrations and guilt. I see wide vistas instead of tiny squares stuffed too full of pain.

I spent most of last year letting go of blinders and distractions. I'm still working on that, but I'm feeling more comfortable with letting go. More comfortable in saying "no" and doing what I want or need. And that opens me up to possibilities, options, mistakes, and successes. 

I chose a word for the year: purpose. I'm not sure where that word will take me, but I see lots of opportunities with that word. Maybe I'll have the opportunity to look for purpose. Maybe I'll find a purpose . . . or two or three or more. 

I'm grabbing hold of the opportunity and watching to be shown my purpose.

linking up at Five Minute Friday

Strivings

I live very much in the present. I have good intentions and expectations, but I'm often stymied by tunnel vision. I forget to stop and look around. I realize I do this in my literal walk as well. I watch each step as I climb a set of stairs. When Alan and I walk at Radnor Lake, I'm more likely to be watching my feet and looking out for roots than to be looking at the beauty and grandeur around me. If it weren't for Alan I'd miss all the deer and turkeys and chipmunks and mushrooms. When I first realized this, it didn't occur to me that I do the same thing in my attitude toward life. I'm so busy looking out for potential pitfalls that I forget to lift up my head and look at the beauty I'm dwelling in already.

I read a lot of blogs. Probably too many, but they have given me much fodder for thought and growth. Yet even when reading emily wierenga or Ann Voskamp, I find myself wishing I had known these things long ago so I could have avoided so many mistakes. "If onlys" will drive you right over the cliff. 

Last night, over a year since asking for and receiving One Thousand Gifts, I finally picked it up to read. And right there in the opening pages I found things:
"His secret purpose framed from the very beginning [is] to bring us to our full glory" (1 Cor. 2:7 NEB -- italics mine). There it was. My word for the year -- PURPOSE.
And then this:
". . . maybe you don't want to change the story, because you don't know what a different ending holds."

My story, my pace, my approach . . . maybe they are all part and parcel of God's secret purpose for ME. And constantly reproving and reproaching myself, maybe that's no different than reproving and reproaching God and His plan.

And so I am reminded again of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol having his epiphany to "live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach." And I pray that in living with purpose I too will allow for such strivings.

One Word

purpose -- 1. the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used,etc. 2. an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal. 3. determination; resoluteness. 4. the subject in hand; the point at issue.

The word first popped up here. Later I saw a tweet with #oneword365 and it peaked my curiosity. So I went to the site, OneWord365.com and read. And I knew immediately what my word would be.

Purpose. I've been trying to find my purpose all my life. Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? What's the point? I've written about intentionality before, and it's all tied up in the same thing. I don't want to just be a paper bag blown about by the wind. I want a goal, an aim, intention -- a purpose. I want to live on purpose, not accidentally.

So that's my word for this year. My hope is that with that as my focus, I will see more clearly what God wants me to see. I will be able to ignore the blinders and distractions that get in my way. As Scrooge says at the end of A Christmas Carol, "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach." I don't want to shut out the lessons I am meant to be taught.

I want to live this year with purpose.

linking up with One Word and Writer's Workshop

Wordless Wednesday

linking up with Wordless Wednesday

The Simple Woman's Daybook -- 2013

FOR TODAY . . . January 1, 2013

Outside my window . . . it is very overcast. We are in the low 40's but hoping for a little sunshine this afternoon.

I am thinking . . . that being sick over the holidays was the pits. 

I am thankful . . . to be coming out of the coughing fog. I am also so thankful for my precious family members who have cared for me through it all.

In the kitchen . . . dd has been handling cooking chores for a week or more now. And doing it so well!

I am wearing . . . sweat pants, a t-shirt, a sweat jacket, and my house shoes. It's become my go to outfit.

I am creating . . . my stripey afghan. I actually felt like working on it yesterday for the first time in a long time.

I am going . . . to buy a new calendar . . . maybe today. I haven't left the house since the Friday before Christmas, so this could be a BIG outing.

I am wondering . . . how long it will take for this cough to go away completely.

I am reading . . . a new book I got for Christmas. Journalution has been on my want to read list for a good long time. Finally started it last night, and I like it so far.

I am looking forward to . . . feeling better! It's amazing how much I miss being able to take care of my family. Maybe this has been a gift to remind me that I love what I do.

I am hearing . . . computers humming and clicking keyboards as dh and I are both typing this morning.

Around the house . . . dd has been gathering the remaining Christmas decorations so we can get everything put away. She has also been scrubbing floors for me. What a jewel!

I am pondering . . . why television can be such a bad thing for me. I buy into the idea of television as reality pretty easily. It would be easy to convince myself that I'm the only one with a messy house right now -- but I know that television is NOT reality.

One of my favorite things . . . is talking! And with this coughing thing, talking has been in short supply. Dd and I were communicating via hand signals and mother/daughter telepathy last night. Quite amusing!

A few plans for the rest of the week . . . maybe a trip out of the house this afternoon; an appointment tomorrow; and Bible study starts on Thursday. Let's hope I'm up to all that!

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing . . . 

goodies from Seeds of Blessing

for more visit The Simple Woman's Daybook