Happy New Year!  I haven’t written for a while and have been trying to find the “right time” (the “write time” too) to get back into it.  The New Year presents a great time to reinvent myself. Historically, I have felt like there has to be a major life event to have a tabula rasa moment (starting high school, going to college out of state, starting my career, getting married), but I have learned over time that you can choose to make change at any point, on any given day.  Sometimes I think we get comfortable in habit and routine (good or bad habits and routines) and feel like change is difficult.  My husband (who deals with change much better than I do) will remind me that change is simple, but not easy.

I decided to start 2018 with a small change.  I woke up with a series of ideas and wanted to get something written down before I forgot them.  I have also learned over the last year or so that when inspiration hits, if I don’t write it down then, it will be gone (especially if I think of something in the middle of the night and try to convince myself that I’ll remember it in the morning).

JJ and I plan to spend some time later today talking about what we want to see happen in 2018.  He read something the other day that recommends writing down your resolutions in question form so that your brain works on solving the problem/answering the question instead of trying to fulfill a statement.  I’ve already found my brain coming up with ideas of what steps need to be taken to accomplish some preliminary ideas we have discussed.  Habakkuk 2:2 states “Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.” (NIV).

As for my blog, I have been a bit hesitant to put my goals and ideas in print in public.  I struggle with very common fears – do I have anything to say that anyone would want to read, how far do I realistically think this could go, etc?  I’m reminded of the poem by Marianne Williamson “Our Deepest Fear.”

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness

That most frightens us.

 

We ask ourselves

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

 

Your playing small

Does not serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking

So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

 

We are all meant to shine,

As children do.

We were born to make manifest

The glory of God that is within us.

 

It’s not just in some of us;

It’s in everyone.

 

And as we let our own light shine,

We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we’re liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.”

I’m currently rereading Joel Osteen’s book “You Can You Will.”  On page 112, there is a paragraph that jumps out at me every time I read it.  He says “I read that the wealthiest places on earth are not the oil fields of the Middle East or the diamond minds of South Africa.  The wealthiest places are the cemeteries.  Buried in the ground are businesses that were never formed, books that were never written, songs that were never sung, dreams that never came to life, potential that was never released.”  Maybe that paragraph leaps off the page for me because we live next to small cemetery of one of the founding families of our city.  Sometimes I wonder what the lives were like of the people who are remembered there and if they accomplished what they hoped to during their lives. When I get to the end of my life, I want to look back and feel as if I fully used the gifts I was given and was obedient to the voice of God.  Today, I feel like this is the next step in that process.

So, here is my vision for my blog.  I hope for inspiration for a book, an avenue for publication and an invitation to speak at a women’s conference.  If you knew me growing up, speaking in front of people was the LAST thing I would ever want to do.  JJ and I have had such a positive response from the small groups that we share our story with, I keep getting the nudge from the Holy Spirit that there are other people and larger groups that would also benefit.

What are your hopes for 2018? What are your dreams that you haven’t told anyone else about?  We can’t get there on our own – other people hold the key to opportunities and connections that we don’t have in isolation.  As I posted on my Facebook page last night, may 2018 be a year of realized dreams and fulfilled potential.

PS – In keeping with a post from earlier last year, here is a picture of us at Christmas.