“Another year over, a new one just begun….” (Happy Christmas, by John Lennon)

2012 was difficult for a lot of souls….. I hope for peace for all the hurting hearts…and that in 2013, they will be able to move forward.  (2013. What  WILL Triskaidekaphobiac’s do?)

For the past few years, starting with an online quilting group, I’ve chosen a word to identify/shape/define the year.  Past words: Insight, Inclusive, Deliberate, Balance, Motion, Weather….. (wander through the archives to possibly read a bit about the words.)

I have never chosen the word, it CHOOSES me. (It’s something like writing fiction— when your characters are determined to do what THEY want, and the heck with your plans for them….)  I actually am envious of some of the words that others come up with, but they don’t feel right, right now.  So, I wait. I hear words as I go about my day, and one of them usually just latches on. Can’t shake it off, even as I wonder, ‘why this word?’

“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”  Freewill, by Rush. 

(I actually didn’t get to Choose this word, because IT won’t leave my head. Or let others in.  But, I digress )  So, my word is Choose. (not Jimmy Choo’s shoes, lol)

How can this word impact my day to day existence? The word was meant first as an exercise for honing in on artistic endeavors. 

I can choose to finish a project, or call it good—move on, and acknowledge I am gaining nothing from completing it except the act of crossing it off a list.

If it isn’t doing anything more positive than that, then is completion more important than choosing how I expend my mental, emotional and artistic energy? (Although done IS better than perfect, is DONE necessary?)  I can choose to tackle a project over my head, and reach deeper into myself to find a way to complete, and enter into a show, risking rejection, or I can choose to believe I wouldn’t be juried in in any event and not risk failure.

I can choose to go to bed with the dirty dishes hanging over my head, or I can wake to a shiny sink. (they don’t by the way. I rarely feel guilt over the lack of a clean kitchen!)

I can choose to buy the next new shiny thing, or I can watch my balances go down.  I can choose to do something about the pain in my foot, thumb, shoulder, back, or continue to ignore it.  I can choose to accept that I like my stuff, and the way it surrounds me, or I can keep attempting to cater to others expectations and put it away, out of view, in matching plastic totes or pretty hat boxes: more spending! ( I am sorely susceptible to the attraction of pretty hatboxes, alas…Michael’s just got in some REALLY pretty ones…and I just came up with another PERFECT use for one of my plastic totes…)  I can choose to work in chaos, or orchestrate my mind to find a quieter existence.  I can choose to say no, or I can be overwhelmed by all the hands reaching in for a part of me.

I can choose to sleep in, or I can fill every available hour with tasks and projects. I can choose to wake up happy,

I can choose to see the positive in daily interactions,  I can choose to be kind,

I can choose to have empathy, I can choose to move on, I can choose to let it go.

I can choose. Note that CHOOSE is a Verb. An action word. I can choose a lot of things, but not how many hours there are in a day, or how many days I get to live.

Have the happiest of New Years. Be safe and be wonderful!