My One Little Word for 2015 is VOICE. Every now and then I am doing a "check-in" to write about the monthly prompts from Ali Edwards' class and about my progress and relationship with my word.
A few of the summer prompts (May, June and September) were focused on my connection with my word - where I stand, how I am progressing, the ways I want to prioritize the remainder of the year and my overall relationship with my word.
The other two summer prompts (July and August) were more about looking at my word from a new perspective. In July, we looked for music lyrics that somehow related to our word and in August we took some time to consider how our word fit into a framework of gratitude.
Thanks to the prompts, I continually look back to the intentions I wrote in January - verifying that I am generally staying on track. But, I am also repeatedly asked to look at my word with fresh eyes. I really like this balance of reflection and new considerations.
Overall, I feel like I am meeting the intentions that I set at the beginning of the year, but (largely) not in the ways that I anticipated. But that's life, right? For all my best made plans, things change and don't go the way I expect.
I've had a few big "wins" related to VOICE.
The first is a number of smaller things all adding up something bigger with the boys and our parenting. Helping them to have positive and God-centered inner voices was one of my dreams for this word. I feel like we are making big strides on this front.
My other victory came with the pared down action list that I made in June. It's a short list of three things that I really want to prioritize and accomplish by the end of the year. When I made the list, the year was already half over and it was time to think about which things were the most important and also still reasonably possible to complete.
My shortened list looks like this:
1 - Project 333/capsule wardrobe and purging my belongings to leave me with more good stuff and less okay stuff
2 - Finish two more quilts
3 - Complete two more Bible studies
This list is made up of things that I already know have a positive impact on my day to day life. While there are still a lot of other word-related things that would be nice to accomplish, I chose to prioritize the things that will make daily living better - through both the process of getting them done and also the end result of having done them.
It is now the middle of September and I have a lot of quilting to do, but otherwise I am on target for accomplishing everything on this list. And even the quilting projects sound fun and worthwhile - not at all burdensome.
Last year, I wanted to really focus on my word (and not the idea of making my pages "pretty") so I purposely kept my pages black, white and simple. I've had a lot of fun making my pages fit my design voice, this year. Playing with paper and color make me happy and making my pages pleasing to my eye is a way for me to express my voice. I'm not sure if I will go back to black and white for next year or stick with a more colorful palette, but I'm having fun with it for now.
I ran across this post from Ann-Marie and thought it was spot on. She advocates for sharing your voice because it is unique and because "there is always room for you." These weren't the reasons that I chose this word for this year, but I think they fit nicely with my blogging endeavors and the fact that I sometimes wonder why it is that I am writing. I loved reading her perspective on my word.
PS - More One Little Word posts.
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