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| Tuesdays at Two Writing Teachers! |
2016.
What an absolute doozy of a year!
Personally, professionally, as a citizen of the U.S. and a person in the world... just wow.
STRONG certainly turned out to be a darn good word for 2016, and it did its job well, pushing me to be better while also taking care of myself better.
And I want to keep that up. Keep pushing myself, like I always have, but in a way that's good for me, which is the newer part.
Unfortunately, as 2016 showed us all, the world can pack some pretty big punches, no matter how hard you work to make your very best impact on your very small corner of it.
So this fall, when I ran across a version of the "Paradoxical Commandments" on social media, widely attributed to Mother Teresa but apparently actually written by Kent Keith and used by Mother Teresa, I knew what my word for 2017 would be:
ANYWAY.
As I thought more about my word, I remembered loving a song called "Anyway", and when I went to look it up, I learned that Keith's poem was actually one of Martina McBride's inspirations for the lyrics, so my OLW inspirations are tied together perfectly!
At first, I was going to scatter words from each line of the poem around my word in this year's image, but I didn't want it to be too cluttered, and I wanted to add "strong", so I decided to make it more my own:
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| created on my iPad with Drawing Desk and FontCandy+ I chose sunrise colors this year, for hope and rebirth. Like the past several years, this will be my computer wallpaper at school. |
I will be kind,
I will be joyful,
I will be strong,
I will be brave,
I will give my best,
I will forgive those who act hurtfully,
I will love. Everyone. E
when it's hard. I will keep connecting, keep delighting, keep being a spark, keep loving, and keep being strong...
anyway.
Sometimes I think it is hard to leave our words. When words serve us well, we want to hang onto them. Perhaps there is something to keeping a word for more than a year. Your word strong from last year, may well be needed again. Interesting the way you've taken the word anyway and used it to weave through so many possibilities not losing your past words.
ReplyDeleteI hope anyway serves you well in 2017.
Cathy
That's a unique word. I'm so happy it found you and that, like Cathy said, you're able to use it to keep you connected to your past words.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck with this word in 2017!
love it! genius move on choosing your word!
ReplyDeleteAnyway. So much carried by that word. And yes, it's cool how it links other words from other years together. I wish you the best.
ReplyDeleteYou always make me smile, Jennifer, and I'm not surprised that you would take such a word and make it your own, anyway! I love it. 2016 was a year of challenges, but then, so much wonder too. We need to keep that spirit, and I know you will be strong. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteSuch a unique and interesting OLW. I love it! Wishing you a wonderful 2017!
ReplyDelete