Begin / My One Little Word For 2013

My One Little Word for 2013 is "Begin."

For the last couple of years I've had a word that I felt encompassed my year as a whole. I've kept this word with me throughout the year and used it to guide me in everything I did. One year it was "Patience," one year I chose "Love," and last year it was "Enjoy."

I've never written about my words before. I've usually just kept each word as a whisper in my mind. While it did guide my thoughts and actions throughout the year, it didn't do all that it could for me. This year I've felt impressed to verbalize my word and document the ways in which I implemented it in my life.

I thought about my 2013 word for awhile and since this would be the first year I was going to write about it, I felt pressure to choose something inspirational or magical in some way. But the truth is, my word ended up being a lot more simple than that.

I started to think about all that 2013 was bringing to us and realizing that it would be bringing us a lot that we don't even know about yet. Andy has finished grad school and I'll be starting my first class this week. We'll be learning how to be parents. We'll continue to look for our dream home. And so much more. For a minute I thought maybe my 2013 word should be "overwhelmed!"

Then I realized that "Begin" was a much better word. It was a word that would guide me in everything that felt overwhelming this year. Just begin. Begin to take those small baby steps towards my goals, towards figuring things out, towards making things happening.

As I look around our house still littered with the remains of Christmas celebrations, I have the urge to feel overwhelmed by the piles and the process of putting the house back together. Instead, I choose to Begin with something small. I choose to pick up one thing and put it away. If I can just begin everything that feels overwhelming in a small way, eventually it will no longer feel overwhelming.

So 2013.....shall we BEGIN?

One Little Word created by Ali Edwards