Words are the voice of the heart

“Words are the voice of the heart” ~ Confucius

I’m not making any New Year’s resolutions because 1) I’m already doing too much and 2) I did so much introspection and resolution-making during Rosh Hashanah this year.  However, now does seem like a great opportunity to realize that I haven’t been keeping those! 

So I am taking up the challenge that so many have done already: adopting a Word of the Year.  I signed up for Ali Edwards’ class, One Little Word, and she will be sending creative monthly prompts as a reminder to incorporate my word into my life.  So what’s my word? MINDFUL.  

I’m hoping to remember to do one thing at a time, to savor the sweet moments, to notice how things around me feel and sound and look.  They (whoever they are) say that “the days are long but the years are short” and I’ve found that to be so true.

When I first brainstormed, I decided my word would be SLOW, as in slow down already.  (I was humming Simon and Garfunkel’s “59th St. Bridge Song” in my head.) My husband has been saying “slow” in pace of my name for the past few days, as in “Are we out of coffee, Sloe?” (I like that spelling better since it’s going to be my name.) It’s a great reminder!

Our pre-class assignment was to make a title page for our books.  My daughter and I did this together.

Interestingly, my three-year-old’s word of the year is FAST.  Uh oh! Apologies for the blurriness, but she’s… well… fast! Here’s her creation:

I was excited to have a reason to use my scrapbooking supplies.  We had such fun together playing with our letter stickers! 

If you were to choose one word to symbolize your hope for the coming year, what would it be?

You can read other posts related to my OLW here.