It’s that time of year again. A time when I put pen to paper and make plans for the new year and meditate on my one-word. A word that I try to carry with me through the entire year.
Last year, my one-word was optimism.
In looking back and reflecting on 2017, especially during the time of my Mami’s diagnosis and soon passing, optimism was all I had. I clung to it, with fists clenched tight. Although the Lord had other plans, He kept reassuring me that with an optimistic heart, fueled by faith, one can find peace and weather a storm.
Through the pain and heartache of caring for my Mami through her passing, my eyes were opened to how temporal this life really is. When you face death so closely, so intimately, being present for the day is all that matters.
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. – James 4:14
While caring for my Mami, every morning upon gathering as a family, we would praise God for giving us one more day to spend with her. It became our mantra, “we just have today.”
That’s when I knew that my one-word for the new year would be present. I want to be present, truly present to those around me and in the tasks given to me for the day. After all, today is what I have.
Just today, tomorrow is a gift.
To Be Present
I think of being present as being aware of your physical surroundings – being mentally present and intentional with the people you find yourself with or the tasks you are responsible to complete.
It sounds so simple, right?
I’ll be honest with you, for me, it’s difficult to be present. With homeschooling, running a part-time business, and being a homemaker all rolled into one, well, you can see my mind can easily whirl in a million different directions. It makes being present, being mindful, difficult.
While I’m being honest, social media and the enticing pictures, diy’s, and informative articles streaming down my timeline have kept me distracted on more than one occasion. I was recently listening to the Charlotte Mason Poetry podcast (one of my favorites!) when Brittany McGann shared some words from Charlotte Mason that convicted me.
It is a bad thing to think that time is our own to do what we like with. We are all employed; we all have duties, and a certain share of our time must be given to those duties. It is astonishing how much time there is in a day, and how many things we can get in if we have a mind. It is also astonishing how a day, a week, or a year may slip through our fingers, and nothing done. We say we have done no harm, that we have not meant to do wrong. We have simply let ourselves drift. (Book I, pg. 173)
I resonated with a lot of her words, especially that for someone like me, I need systems in place to keep me from being distracted and present to those around me and in my tasks for the day.
In Being Present
Below are some of the ways I plan to be present.
- No More Facebook For Funsies. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love being involved in groups and managing the My Humble Kitchen Facebook Page. Educating and being active in community with people is my jam! Apart from that, it’s a distraction to me that takes my energy. It’s not life-giving so I know for me, it’s something I need to actively step away from. I’ll still be able to be in community with all of you through the pages and groups I manage and of course, there’s Instagram!
- Instagram. Instagram to me is life-giving. I love seeing pictures of friends and family I love most and seeing stories from those I follow and admire. To be present in my day, I’m only posting to Instagram within my working business hours and after all of my tasks are completed for the day. We’ll see how this goes!
- Reading to Know. I’m currently reading, Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God: The Life Story of the Author of My Utmost for His Highest. I’ve really been impacted by reading about the life of Oswald Chambers. I’ve been taking my time with this book. I seriously googled if Oswald Chambers was educated in an Ambleside school! His love of reading literature, poetry, being an artist, and his general love of learning made me think he had to of known Charlotte Mason. LOL! I couldn’t find that answer but I realized in reading this book that I want to read with more intention this year.Instead of making a goal of how many books I want to read this year, I want to follow Charlotte Mason’s example and instead dedicate specific time to read. If it takes me longer to ponder a passage, so be it, as long as I’m reading, I don’t want to worry about how many books I get through in a year.I want to digest the books I read to know them.So, I plan on dedicating 10 minutes in the morning to a book on poetry, 15 minutes a day in the afternoon to one of Charlotte Mason’s Volumes (Volume 2 and 6), and 20-30 minutes to a book of my choice before bed. This should help me be present in my reading.
- Make my Bed Every Day. It’s amazing how present and alive one can feel when making a bed in the morning. For some reason, it makes me feel accomplished and ready to tackle my other tasks for the day. Simple, I can do it!
- Stay Dedicated to Planning My Days. I bought a planner, a super cute planner (use this link and get $10 off!). For me, it’s important, no pertinent, to write down the plans for my day. That includes jotting down school hours, work hours, appointments, to-do’s, chores, and more. It takes the whirling away from my mind as I put it down in writing. It allows me to be present for the task and people at hand without the worrying of, “what’s next.”
- No More, “What’s Next.” This one is so important for me. If it’s my school time, that’s my time with my kids at school. I force myself to not think about, “what’s next.”There is no next, there is only now. When we finish, then I can open my calendar to see what’s next. If everything on my list doesn’t get done in its time, then I move it to the next day. This has made a huge impact on being able to be present for my people. It allows me to be there with them mentally and not think about the next thing. It brings about joy!
So That’s my one-word for 2018: Present.
My word this year is Thankful. I have so much to be thankful for, and I need to express that each day
Thankful and gratitude kind of goes hand-in-hand, huh? I like that!
Very good! I would love to see a day in the life of post on how you teach school!!!
That’s a great idea, Lea! I’ll keep that in mind!
Present (and Presence) was my word last year! Though I ended up focusing more on the presence of the Lord, it was a great word to think about all year. This year, my word is Compassion. I want to understand it more, be it more, demonstrate it to my kids more.
That’s what my husband chose too, Sarah! It’s a good one!
My word for 2018 is CHANGE. There are many things I want to see change in my life this year. A closer more intimate walk with Christ and my families health and nutrition just to name a few. I’m excited to see what awaits us in 2018.
It’ll be exciting when you can reflect on the change a year from now! Love it!
It’s funny, i picked the same word this year! It took me a long time to figure it out. I also lost my mom unexpectedly last year. I really resonated with Charlotte Masons use of the word “drift”. I drifted through last year. I played with the word revive this year… I need to come alive again. But then I found “present”. And I just love the three fold meanings of it. I need to be present in my life. Really present. Because this day with these people is a gift, a present. But it’s hard. So each day I have to present myself as a living sacrifice to the Lord.
Thanks for sharing, it’s always nice to meet a kindred spirit!
Oh, Carrie, I’m so sorry you’re going through the pain of losing your mom. I can relate. It hurts, it’s hard. I find myself crying all the time. No words can help. It’s neat how we both chose the same word of being present and I love the threefold meaning you found in it. I’ll be thinking about that this year as well! Thank you for sharing!!
You and I are of such a like mind! My personal words for the year are “be present.” I am lessening my time on the computer, I am putting my phone down, I am looking at my loved ones when they speak to me and consciously thinking the thought, “Be present” as I listen to them, I stop what I’m doing and turn my ears and my heart towards my children when they want to talk to me, I am working to be better organized and timely in my tasks so that I can be available to my family during the hours of the day they are most likely to want to have a long conversation, I am saying “no” to things that distract me. In short, I am being present. Our time here on this earth is so fleeting and the time we have with our children at home with us is even more so. I will pray that both our journeys to be more present this year is a good one and that our efforts bring glory to God who entrusts us with these precious people in our lives. (Love your blog, by the way!)
Thanks for sharing, Jane! Yes, to everything you wrote. That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to be more intentional in doing! I just need to carry it through. Feel free to keep me accountable ;D
My one word for 2018 is Contentment; like the apostle Paul, I am *learning* to be content in all circumstances.
I have thought about that word a lot, Leanne. So good!
Compassion
Love you, babe. ;D
My word this year is delight. I found myself complaining a lot towards the end of the year and feeling drained by things and people that I don’t want to feel that way about. So I decided to find more delight in these things and more ways for my time with these people (my family!) to be delightful.
More joy, yes! Love that word, delight!
This is my first year choosing a word and came up with Accomplishment.
That’s great, Renai. In what ways are you seeking to feel accomplished?
I have no word. I never had one, but maybe I will in the future. I do have only one goal this year – read the Bible DAILY. Maybe my word can be BIBLE..?!? hmmm…
I really like your idea with setting time to read throughout the day and the variety you chose, rather than putting a number to your reading!! Great idea!!! I might implement that.
Bible is great … Word. Love it!
I tried to use the $10 discount for Erin Condron planners but it doesn’t show it at checkout…
You should get your discount coupon code via an email. That’s how I got mine!
I’m gonna go with “breathe”. It’s sort of like “present” but I sometimes get too carried away, too anxious, too overwhelmed. Being present isn’t enough, sometimes I just need to breathe. And it’s not a joke to say I sometimes forget to breathe, and that creates all kinds of stress and asthma issues. I can tell myself to calm down, stop worrying, just BREATHE.
Girl, I’ve been there! I know what you mean. Breathe is so good! I often remind myself to slow down and breathe.
This was a perfectly timed email for me – i had just sat down with my ‘every day matters’ diary – so what word would be best for me this year??? its a hard one – i have spent the last 2 and 1/2 years angry because of an accident which caused brain damage and has gone untreated except for what i have managed to do for myself – i thought of openness but then no – i have been too hurt of late to expose myself to anymore – and then it came to me – i need courage – not anger but lashings of courage to heal myself and see the beauty again in the world – courage to ask for help and courage to GENTLY let people know not to treat me like the village idiot and ignore me – i am a person – so yep – i think courage would be an enormous advantage this year
Thanks for sharing your one-word, Liz. I think it’s perfect!
I have had the same word for the last 2 or 3 years – TRUST. As in trust God to provide for us and that His plan is bigger and better than my plan. He has given me a new word this year – INTENTIONAL. I need to be intentional in all areas of my life because too often I go through life and feel like I haven’t gotten anything done. So I am focusing on being intentional in my time with God, my relationships, my home, my health, and my work. Like you, this includes not spending much time on Facebook which is typically a time waster and negative. I am going to intentionally choose to spend time instead on Instagram to see what my family and friends are up to.
Intentional is so good! I’ve thought about that one many times 😀 Thanks for sharing, Angel.
Mine is “Be Kind”. God was impressing those words on my heart the last day of 2017. I was sitting in my church’s sanctuary before the sermon was preached and it kept coming to my mind. Then service started and my pastor preached about kindness, however I still wasn’t absolutely convinced that was my word for 2018 until I was driving home from a New Years party. I drove by a business with a marquee out front that caught my eye. It had some saying on it, which I don’t remember except for the last words “Be Kind”. I was absolutely convinced at that time that Be Kind is for me in 2018.
It’s so neat when the Lord speaks to us and more than once! That’s great!
I am with you Diana.
This year my one word is TODAY.Last year was the most tough year of my life.Two extremely serious uti(me),one case of pneumonia(my 4 year old daughter)a case of jaundice(newborn) and also 2 young mom unfortunate death in my neighborhood made me realize that nothing is permanent.
So,TODAY I am here,in this body,and maybe there is no tomorrow for me.
And as always I love your ways to live for today.❤
I’m sorry you had a rough year, Susmita. I think Today is a great word!
HONESTY is my word this year. Honest with my self (do I really want to chair this committee, do I really have time to bake 75 cookies for that cause even if it is a good thing).
HONESTY with and too others(no explanation needed)
HONESTY at work ( do I really need to stay over on the clock to get this completed or should I just plan my time better to get it completed during my work day.)
It seemed that the word HONESTY fit in to all of my life areas in some way so Honesty it is for 2018.
That’s so good! Yes, we need to be honest and learn to say no.
Wow…how lovely!
I actually have 3 words for this year which at their core mean the same thing but they have different aspects to each word. Refresh, renew, restore. So many areas in which these are needed. It’s going to be an interesting journey.
My word is Joy. For me this means choosing to be joyful in all things, despite all circumstances. I have found it is so much easier to feel joyful when I’m thankful. They fo hand in hand.
My word for this year is Pause. I rush through life and into situations without thinking about the outcomes, then I wonder how did I get here? My pause and your present go well together. This year, I am choosing to hit my mental pause button before I act or speak.
This is a great post! The paragraph you highlighted really makes an impact. I have let so much time “drift” away. Thanks for sharing it.
I usually don’t do a word, but this year decided to. I am doing two words. The first is “priorities”. My father has had a stroke and seizure and I have moved in with my parents to care for him. I was helping them, but not really ‘available’, if you know what I mean. Now, all the other stuff does not matter. I let it distract me from what is important.
The second word is “prepare”. I used to do it all the time, but let that slip by and this Winter has really kicked me. I need to get back to taking the time to prepare.
Darlene
My word is peace. Peace that the Lord will lead me to where I need to be. Peace that I can rest in Him.
To go along with your word- the Pastor of my church when I was growing up would say “The past is history, the future is a mystery, today is a gift that is why they call it the present”. It helps me remember that I need to be present in today and that today is such a blessing, a gift.