Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year, readers, listeners, friends, family, and anyone else who happens to stumble across this blog! I think I speak for all of us when I say, “I hope 2023 will be better than 2022, and that all the blessings, luck, fortune, and opportunities will come to all of us.” We need it.

Last Sunday, I was reflecting on everything that had come to pass in 2022. I was wrapping up my One Little Word and PowerSheets projects in anticipation of starting a new One Little Word and goal-setting system for 2023. As I read through my workbooks, rereading all the journaling, reflections, poetry, and quotes I had written and collected, I kept running across little nuggets of wisdom and insight that showed me just how much I have changed and grown in the last 12 months, and I found so much I wanted to share, that I thought I would offer some of it here as a sort of recap of our year together.

Those who’ve been reading and listening to Modern Musings all year probably know that it has been challenging for me. After caring for and losing a dear friend to cancer in January, I had thought the worst was behind us and I was on track to my best year ever. But then, in July, my husband, Mark, was diagnosed with lung cancer, and the tribulations continued to mount. Around the same time, Mark also lost his job of more than 20 years. All the while, I was still struggling to rebuild my little travel agency, and hoping to turn a part-time hobby for fun money into a full-time, bring home the bacon cash cow. And lest I forget, I need to mention my mother, who has Frontotemporal Dementia and who needs to move to a Medicaid skilled nursing home before she runs out of money.

All this to say, “Whew! It’s been a lot!” And I have been quite remiss in sharing with you any sort of progress with my goals or my One Little Word since we first introduced the concept on our podcast in late 2021. Amber, Christen, and I chose words for 2022 that reflected the goals we wanted to achieve in the coming year. We talked about “why”, and even mentioned a number of ways “how” we develop our words, but we never came back to share progress or results. For that reason, I have created this flip-through video to share my personal journey with my word, “now”, which was inspired by my reading of Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth.”

I know you can’t see all the detail in the journal, but I hope this video will help you see the merits of doing your own One Little Word project, whether it’s through Ali Edward’s workshop or even just working on your own. I do feel like it has been a life-changing experience for me, and I highly encourage everyone to give it a try. If you’re still on the fence, here is a recording of Ali Edwards in a Zoom with her instructional team as they discuss choosing their word.

I announced my word back in December, but I actually chose it much earlier than that. After the challenges of 2022, I thought it might be nice to choose something easy and fun. My word for 2023 will be “Light”. What will yours be?