Four Words for 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012 
Hello again—and Happy New Year! We had a great, sunny, family-filled few days at the beach after Christmas, and then our first day back, I began writing again.
It’s great and hard and exciting and nerve-wracking, and I’m finding that adding three days a week of writing into life with two kids, etc., etc. to be a bit of a trick—the days are flying, and the house is a wreck, and I haven’t yet gotten into the groove.
I’m also attempting to reply to lots of very kind emails from the fall—thank you, first, for all your messages, and second, for your grace as I reply to them after such a delay.
Three month old, five year old, looming manuscript deadline, laundry pile-up, bursting inbox…this poor blog is always the last to get some love and attention, but as with all things this season, better late than never, yes?
These are the four words that I’ve chosen to guide me through the coming year:
SMARTER, STRANGER, HEALTHIER, MORE HOLY
SMARTER
Once upon a time, like when I graduated from college, I was kind of smart. Or at least smart-ish. I read complicated novels. I read literary criticism. I read the New Yorker. I read in French. Fast forward a decade or so, and while I still read a lot, my standards have slipped. Now, instead of the New Yorker, I read US Weekly. Instead of reading in French, I read cookbooks with French recipes. And that’s not all bad, but this year I want to rediscover my inner smartypants—more Time than tabloids, more Joan Didion than Jenny McCarthy. I want to turn off the tv and pick up something meaningful, complex, challenging. I want to end the year smarter than when it started.
STRANGER
Along those lines, when I graduated from college, I was a little less consumed by consumer culture. I was a little stranger. I listened to more indie music, spent less time at Target, danced a little more to the beat of my own drummer. And this year, I want to reclaim that funny little indie artist girl. I want to buy less, consume less, feel less in line with a mainstream culture that has very little to offer in terms of depth and meaning.
I don’t want to watch the Kardashians. I don’t want to keep filling my house with stuff to make life more convenient—cheap toys, frozen meals, disposable everything. I want to be, consciously, a little weirder--creative, risky, gutsy. Generous, alternative, courageous. A little strange.
HEALTHIER
Let it be said—yes, let it be shouted across the internets—I’m not ready to go all upper-thirties Chico’s-wearing mom just yet. Four pregnancies (2 healthy, 2 not) in five years, along with a move, two books, and two book tours, have not been kind to my body. It’s time to make some serious changes.
For me, that’s about a lot more than a diet. It’s about my appetites, my beliefs about myself and about my body. It’s about exercise and time and self-esteem. I know I won’t do it perfectly, but I’m on it. Ready to learn a new way, ready to teach this old dog some new tricks in 2012.
MORE HOLY
It would sound better, I know, to say holier, but holier immediately makes me think ‘holier than thou,’ and that’s not what I mean at all. What I mean is holier than I was last year, and the year before. I want to be more like Christ—more forgiving, less angry. More able to sacrifice, less attached to my own safety and comfort. More prayerful and less fearful. More disciplined and less attached to my own preferences.
So there we are...2012: smarter, stranger, healthier, more holy.
What words are guiding you through the year?
Reader Comments (28)
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hope 2012 is full of all things wonderful.
xoxo,
lyndsey
Release - Because I'm going to learn how to be better at giving things to God and controlling myself from worry, stress, pain, heartbreak, over planning etc.
BIGGER - Becuase I know things will be BIGGER than ever this year.
Power- Because I know God has it ALL under control. (Ties in with Release)
Beauty- Because I know that I AM beautiful and God makes all things beautiful.
and MORE: more listening, more valuing, more peace, more gratitude, more serving..... more more more more more.
Love your blog, your books, your spirit, your blog-followers ---who also encourage me with their insights, and praying for you all.....
Discomfort: With the things holding me back, weighing me down, with the things I need to change.
Space: Clearing my life, my heart, my home of the stuff. Making room for God to move.
Freedom: There are a number of areas of my life where I hold myself back from saying what I think or pursuing things that interest me because of fear of failure or fear of what others will think. I want to focus this year on living out of a place of freedom, rooted in my identity as a beloved child of God, instead of being bound by what people might think or how I might perform.
Rest: I do a good job of eating healthy food and getting plenty of exercise, but I am horrible at prioritizing sleep. When I'm tired, which is most of the time, I'm overwhelmed by life, afraid to take risks, cranky, discouraged, and less able to extend and receive grace. That is not how I want to live! So I'm working on making sleep a priority.