Which sounds very much like jousting at windmills. And, really, isn’t that what we all want to do? To pursue our passions? A few years ago I learned of a book, One Word That Will Change Your Life. A friend of mine had shared how he selected a word for himself each year. I then tried it with my “tribe” – our group of close friends who usually spend New Year’s Eve together at the lake.
We’re doing it again this year. My friend Lisa brought a “What’s Your Word?” kit so that we could each pound the letters of our words into a metal disk to wear or keep with us for the year.
My word for 2019 is “alignment.” I’m eager to see if I can align my day job, my writing life, my love life, my spiritual life, my relational life. Part of getting things done that I want and need to do is to make them fun and low-risk. Like play. Play, “the spontaneous activity of children,” by definition is also “the absence of harmful intent.” Easy enough to approach my “To Do” list with such intent. As for alignment, it seems alignment would be easier to achieve when activities for each of my lives can, per Webster, “be in or come into precise adjustment or correct relative position.” How great would that be? And maybe, with a low-risk approach, just by doing the things alignment will become apparent. Perhaps it’s not so much in the planning but rather–and so much more simply–in the doing.
Our table at the lake is glass, so we had to take the “What’s Your Word?” kit elements down to the basement so we could hammer on the cement floor. I knelt in front of the little tools. I had selected my letters. I was trying to remember that I needed to use the “N” twice. I was worried about misspelling my word. Then I was worried about running out of space on the little disk. My result was, well, a clear indication that “alignment” is a terrific word for me to attempt this year! (Of note, I had titled and begun drafting this post hours before I created my Word Disk…my first attempt at alignment this year.)
Here we go 2019! Let’s play!
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