Happy New Year, New Decade!!! I love this time of year, when there is a sense of newness. Renewal. Hopefulness. Like everyone has just been handed a clean slate, with a fresh new piece of chalk and never-been-used eraser.. “Here ya go, You. Now.. what you do with it is up to you”.

Having said that (what an opener, right? That’s a warm fuzzy right there), I am not one who spends any brain time whatsoever on resolutions. Been there, failed that. Many, many times. Who wants to set themselves up to fail? Not this girl, lemme tell ya. After finally figuring THAT out, I found myself instead choosing a word.. just one, tiny grouping of letters , that I would invite into my world. I would focus on that word throughout the year, and see where it showed up. Sounds like total bunk.. I know… In fact, I signed up for an online journaling class to help me work with my word because I had no clue what to do with my word. After the first class.. and this is no joke.. I burst into tears. I knew that I had stumbled onto a way of making small changes in my life that could add up to so much more. BONUS - It was fun! BONUS BONUS - it was creative! BONUS CUBED - IT WAS MANAGEABLE.

Yesterday, I pulled out my first scrapbook from the first year I did this excercise. It was 2012, and my word was “free”. Looking back at the pages.. it gets me in the feels. I’ve done it every year since. Not necessarily the scrapbooking part; my life has changed in so many ways since 2012 that scrapping the journal isn’t feasible (again, left me feeling like a failure and sucked ALL THE JOY out of the process). Now, I just find the word.. or the word finds me. I spend most of the year connecting with it, and it always astounds me when it shows up.

I’m challenging you, friends… don’t worry about resolutions. Screw resolutions. Make 2020 about intention. Find one word… or open yourself up to your word finding you. Not sure how to do that? Post your question and I’ll try to help. I also recommend heading over to Ali Edwards’ website and looking at her online class “One Little Word”. It is magical in so many ways, and I see now that she even has a preprinted journal in her shop that has prompts built in. Definitely check it out.