As we move toward the beginning of a brand new year starting at midnight, on this last day of the year I'm taking time to reflect on 2022 and all the living we’ve done in its 525,600 minutes. My blessings far outweigh my challenges and setbacks. Last December, I chose listen as my One Little Word for 2022, which Ali Edwards has made popular since 2006. I suppose it’s what daily writers do: we listen to the world around us. We listen for what inspires us and what we can take from conversations, moments, lessons, experiences - and time we share with others - to make sense of our world. What we do with all the listening is what invites me to choose pray as my word for 2023. It wasn’t my first serious consideration, or even my second. My initial choice was believe. During my week of Covid confinement in December, I almost prematurely announced believe and all my reasons for choosing it. It’s the essence of my Christian faith, the verb of what we do with our faith to trust in God’s plan. It’s what gets us through tough times. Long moments of pondering all that I don’t want to be quick to believe led me to think more about the power of sharing. Share was my second consideration. I share what I experience and what I believe as truth, often on my blog. Then I thought of my word listen this year, and all of the listening that happened through prayer. I wondered: what if I spent an entire year with the word pray as my guiding light word? My little Caribbean blue Rav4 has been my twice-daily prayer chamber for years as I make my way to and from work. I don't turn on the radio ~ I pray. I believe fully in the power of prayer and the difference it makes. I see miracles that have happened because of prayer, and I often wonder about the miracles that happen that we never see, also because God answers prayer. As we step into 2023, I've chosen an action verb again. Pray. What a blessing I feel already! If you’re taking a One Little Word as your guiding light this year, please share in the comments below or send me a Facebook message - - I love all the thinking that goes into OLW choices! Cheers to you in 2023! Tomorrow, I will begin daily posts in the areas of my seven goal categories this year. They are: Reflection, Inspiration/Spirituality, Self-Improvement, Creativity, Literature, Experience, and Gratitude. I've never succeeded at keeping New Year's Resolutions, but what has worked for me for the past 12 years is establishing goals and adding an accountability measure in my writing through a month-end checkpoint. More on this beginning tomorrow!
Common Threads 