Here I am.

Am I caught up from the “holidays”?  No, not really, but then again, I am not caught up from this weekend, last week, or this entire month yet either…however…I am getting there.

Case in point…here I am.

I have no art to show as yet…so no artwork will accompany this post.

I wanted to tell you about my word of the year for 2020: Reverence.

I tell you, I usually have everything set up and waiting for the New Year around Halloween/Samhain, but in 2019, nada.  In 2018, I had all the prompts and ideas and whatnot written out for 2019 by the end of summer…in 2019, though, I tried…and nothing really spoke to me.  (More on this later though.)

My word of the year I had to work at and work at.  I reached a point in November when I decided to stop trying to push it and let it go.  I wrote down in my journal that I was waiting for my word.  I figured it would just come to me–and it did.

It took until mid to late December (probably until I utterly released the need to have a word of the year and probably when I remembered I was waiting for one).  I was walking through the house, doing who knows what, when it hit me…my word of the year NEEDED to be reverence.

Not that I wanted it to be reverence, but that I needed it to be reverence–because my own usual sense of reverence for all things has been missing (a young child and his routines, chronic illnesses competing for my energy, teenagers, pets, laundry….and yada yada yada yada yada…you get it, right?).

I have been BUSY, so busy, running to and fro our various appointments every week.  I rarely have time to sit and think…much less enjoy the little things that I always enjoy…planting sunflowers every Spring so I can…curse the squirrels for finding most of the seeds and eating them before they grow (joke, mostly…), so I can watch the birds play on the flowers, steam wafting off a cup of coffee that I sit and drink one sip at a time, the sound of my pen scratching across the page as I journal, silence, the smell of fresh-baked bread, the scent of pine cleaner throughout the house once I finish cleaning something/somewhere, the feel of paper or wool beneath my fingers as I read or knit…all these little things.  So many little things.

These are the things I miss but have been too pushed to the edges of my limits for far too long and I haven’t made the time to stop and enjoy, to stop and allow myself to be inspired, to stop and to offer my respect and awe for these little things.  I have also been missing a reverence toward my own self, my body, my clothing, my skills, my habits…and so on…I have no choice at this point.  I have to stop.  I have to make time.  I have to choose more often to pause, to look around and to appreciate.

Reverence is defined, basically, as a feeling of deep respect or awe, or as veneration.

For me, reverence is taking the time, even a tiny little moment, and appreciating … whatever it is.  It’s about savoring small things, allowing little things to bring joy into my heart.  That is my goal, for every day this year–and after this year ends as well…

What is your word of the year this year?

How are you incorporating your word into your daily life?