One Word Wasn’t Enough This Year

2022 is my ninth year of One Word 365. Instead of making New Year’s resolutions, I choose a word to guide the year. I usually start thinking in the fall about what areas I’m trying to grow in and what I need in my life. This round, a word fell into my lap early and I just went with it:

Inspiration

Renew:
to begin or take up again, as an acquaintance, a conversation, etc.; resume.
to make effective for an additional period.
to restore or replenish.
to begin again; recommence.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. – II Corinthians 4:16

To bring anything new into the world is to open one’s self and therefore to take on risk, to contaminate oneself with the other, to be made vulnerable. This requires not just courage but many things, among them faith, hope, help, companionship, grace — in a word, love. – Rachel Marie Stone

You will be at least a dozen different women in your lifetime and that’s okay. In fact, it’s more than okay. Learn to love the woman who you were once but be willing to let her go, too. There is a new you waiting to be born and you will grow to love her, too. – Sarah Bessey

What seems true is that something in life, on the highways or in our hearts, is always being installed, or being repaired, or being torn down for the next installation. ― Anne Lamott

Reflection

Thesaurus Analysis: Renew, renovate, repair, restore suggest making something the way it formerly was. To renew means to bring back to an original condition of freshness and vigor. Renovate means to do over or make good any dilapidation of something. To repair is to put into good or sound condition; to make good any injury, damage, wear and tear, decay, etc.; to mend. To restore is to bring back to its former place or position something which has faded, disappeared, been lost, etc., or to reinstate a person in rank or position.

After almost two years of a pandemic, I desperately want all of those things. Who doesn’t?!? Please inject freshness and vigor into my veins.

Since becoming a mom, I find it easier and more desirable to try new things. I’m less attached to my old ways, and at this point a lot of those old things seem fuzzy and far away, so even the old that I want to reincorporate into my life feels new. The time is right to start fresh in whatever ways I want to. I have a new body, new capabilities, a new role as a mom, and a rapidly growing baby who can do new things every day. I’m ready for some new friends, new activities, and new approaches… and to restore old friendships and connections. I know the pandemic will continue to limit me, but I will do what I can. Which brings me to my official mantra of the year (something I’ve never done before):

2022 Mantra: I Am Doing My Best

I am doing my best. I say this phrase every day. To my baby while I’m dressing him and he suddenly seems to have eight limbs, or when I’m not preparing his bottle fast enough. To my husband when my anxiety tells me I’ve done something to upset him. To co-workers when, on the fifteenth revision of a document, I miss that one change on page 5. To the Peloton instructor who, when I’m going full out and still not hitting an 80 cadence, tells me to speed up to 100 (this has also involved shouting and tears). To anyone who witnesses some kind of mom fail. Most of all, and for all kinds of reasons, to myself. So this year, I’m going to embrace it. Hopefully I’ll reach a point where my best is, at least, good enough for me.

Previously

• 2021: Release
• 2020: Peace
• 2019: Love
• 2018: Fearless
• 2017: Abundance
• 2016: Light
• 2015: Enough
• 2014: Alive
• 2013: Focus