My One Little Word for 2016

It's the middle of January! Did you know it was the middle of January? I suppose I must have known. I wrote the date on my sign in sheet for every yoga class I taught during the last two weeks.

 I did manage to get all the linens washed, folded, and almost all put away. The Christmas tablecloth is still folded on top of my dryer. There is still a high chair in my dining room and a car seat in the back seat of my car. But those errant reminders of Christmas past will be remedied this weekend.

And finally I can turn my mind purposefully toward the year ahead. My one little word for 2016 is SHINE. Just because I was a little late rising and shining in January, I'm still planning to explore that word this year. At first I wasn't sure, but the idea kept shimmering in the back of my head. Then one day last week, I walked into the bank and was greeted at the door by this sign.

And if that wasn't enough to seal the deal, I visited poet and friend, Jeannine Atkins' Views from a Window Seat and found this quote from Kevin Larimer, editor of Poets and Writers.

 “Whether thousands, hundreds, or dozens of people might read what we’ve written, or even if we reach just one single soul, we are being given an opportunity to create something bright in all this darkness. Shine.”

Lovely, huh?

My OLW for last year was RESOLUTION. You can revisit that post here. As I look back, it truly was a year of resolution. My youngest daughter was married to a lovely man. Now all four of my children are happily settled with wonderful mates. That's definitely a strong chord resolution. I completed my advanced yoga training and am now a 500-hr Registered Yoga Teacher. It was a wonderful, challenging, satisfying, healing journey.

So now I'm ready to shine, sparkle, glow, glisten. So many excellent choices. I'm sure there will be places where I need to rub off some tarnish, but that's in the definition, too.

No poem this week, but you may have seen this quote written in part as a found poem around the web. It comes from Marianne Williamson's book, A Return to Love.

“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 is 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 are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Come and visit. I might take a shine to you!

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