My word for this year is “Hope.” I haven’t always chosen a special word, but I find it really does help me, and then through the year I seem to come across different words, images, lyrics or such that support my focus on the meaning behind that word for me. Recent yearly words have been “Devotion” and “Unfurl.” One time I even attended a wonderful January online event which helped me choose a word for the year in a gentle and satisfyingly effective way.
I almost passed on “Hope,” but I stopped myself from looking further. At first, it seemed too general to be maintainable, let alone provide contemplation. Yet it spoke ardently to my spirit, as truly so much of my own work within is around settling in, even nestling in, with Hope. Not the type of clingy hope that I realize had been my norm for years, but the hope that comes with relinquishment and trust.
It’s been a long road learning to breathe deeply here, and my body still defaults to an initial clenching at times, but I more quickly gather strength from staying still and quiet right where and when I am, praying for God to be in this thing at hand, and then Feeling it – the Hope. Reconciling to the mystery. I spent twenty of my earliest years in the throes of a wretched obsessive-compulsive disorder, the very opposite of “reconciling to the mystery,” so the slow morph there has been, uh, significant.
To fortify my personal development and faith, I often use the practice of SoulCollage®. It helps me to reinforce my present way and to strengthen the way for which I’m striving. This is spiritually enriching work which directly affects the nourishing of my mind and the flourishing of my body. Simply, it’s good for me.
So, I choose images that cause me to have a glimmer within. And then I write:
I am one who will glow with hope. I am one who has decided not to be attached to an outcome, but to hold life loosely and with immense hope.
I am one who relaxes in this hope, knowing things can even be better than ever before, that patterns can be changed, and life transformations can result in permanent shifts.
I am one who relaxes in the time ahead and isn’t fixed on chronological time.
I am one who sets her gaze with a smile and a huge, huge hope, sending out peaceful energies and frequencies, and above all, prayers for the best of those close to my heart.
I am one who basks and warms in the flow of what is to be, knowing there will be what I need when I need it, and I may very well not even need that which I think I will need.
I am one who invites the possibilities, not based on what has happened, what is happening, or how I perceive either, but on the glorious potential ahead.
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