You Get to Choose!

Happy New Year! As this year starts, I have lots of goals and plans for 2022 and one of the goals is to blog at least three times a month. You don’t have to read it, but I am still going to post it!

Lots of folks choose a word for the year that defines and clarifies their focus. I think that is a great practice, but I have decided to do it a little differently, at least for now. I am going to start each month with a word for the month that will set my focus for the weeks ahead. And the at the end of the year, I think it will be interesting to look back and see how the path unfolded throughout the months.

My word for January is “CHOOSE.” I think that we, or at least I, forget just how much power we have to choose in our lives. But the key is to do the work, to take the time, to discern and understand the parts over which we have control and the external things that will not change, no matter how much we wish it or scream at it.

As this new year starts, that is going to be my focus. I want to be keenly aware of the areas where my choices can make a difference and then work to make good choices (and I want to make sure to be forgiving when I don’t).

After two years of, let’s be honest, hell, we all want to see something different, something better. I don’t know what 2022 is going to bring, but I am making the choice, and will endeavor to make this choice every day, to make it a good year, as far as it depends on me.

This means that there are some decisions that I need to make with regards to my own health and wellness that will require a fairly stark level of honesty with myself. But the audit must be done, and the changes are necessary if I want to be/do better. This is in my control.

The world is an angry, divided place. People are operating out of fear and hatred in ways that I cannot remember ever seeing before. And much of that is beyond my power to do anything about it. But what I can do is this…remember that we are all human and therefore connected and I can choose to meet people out of that understanding; I can seek to meet people with compassion and empathy, rather than anger and sarcasm; and I can focus on lifting up rather than tearing down. Will this change the world? Not really, but it might change mine. And this is in my control

But the other part of this is that I need to be aware of the things that are not in my power to change and release the power of these things over me. For instance, it is supposed to get really cold over the next couple of days, and I am not excited about that. But I also can do nothing about except prepare for it. I choose to not let something like this derail my attitude, since I cannot do anything about it anyway. This, too, is in my control.

In other words, I am choosing to say that, as far as it depends on me, 2022 is going to be a good year, a year of growth and of healing, of wellness and wholeness, and hopefully of joy and love. Peace.