January Didn't Count

Photo by Mike Wilson

I have decided January didn't count.

I was out of town the first ten days. I had guests at my house the last ten days. And every spare minute in between went to cleaning out my in-laws' house after their move to an assisted living facility.

So, Happy Unofficial New Year!

My first official act of 2017 is to share my one little word (OLW) for the year. While I spent a great deal of time thinking about it, there has been no time for writing a blog post to share it.

Connect...

Connecting...

Connection...

I loved connecting the dots on coloring pages as a kid. The photo above makes me wonder what is hidden among those dots.

I'm looking forward to making some new connections this year, for connecting well with the ones I love most dearly, connecting things together and finding the common thread that binds them. Who knows what else will connect in my heart and mind over the next 11 months. We'll see, and I'll keep you posted.

“There are all these people here I don't know by sight or by name. And we pass alongside each other and don't have any connection. And they don't know me and I don't know them. And now I'm leaving town and there are all these people I will never know.”

― Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding

Carson McCullers' one hundredth birthday is this month. McCullars is from my hometown, Columbus, Georgia, and there are lots of celebratory events happening around here. If you live nearby, you may be interested. The big shebang is February 19. Maybe I'll see you there.

Shining Moments

My word for this year was SHINE.

And there have been shining moments throughout the year.

I joined the teaching staff of New Day Yoga Advanced Teacher Training and I'm loving the three week-long modules that occur each year. I assist with several of the workshops and teach the chapel portion of the program. My heart glows with shiny joy when I think about it.

I received this special SHINE jar from poet friend, Irene Latham. You can read a few of my favorite shiny messages.

I hosted a Coffee with Dori gathering on my sun porch over the summer. Lots of shining moments!

I climbed a mountain in Montana and got to see where my Bicycle Soldiers began their journey. I call them mine because I've been trying to tell their story for so long, it feels like they are mine. One day it will actually be a shiny story! 

I spent an incredible few days in Western Washington meeting poet friends, some I already knew and some I didn't. Met Nikki Grimes. Met Jack Prelutsky. Met Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. All shining moments. And reading my poem from Poetry Friday for Celebrations made me feel all shiny and joyful.

I welcomed a new grandson. Perhaps the most shining moment of all!

I'll be taking a break from blogging for the next few weeks. I'm looking forward to celebrating a couple of end-of-December birthdays for my sons-in-law, celebrating Christmas with a new grandson, and celebrating New Year's with precious friends on a trip to Santa Fe. My Pondering posts will continue, as I've pondered ahead, but nothing that requires active thought beyond celebrating these moments!

I'll be back sometime in January with my One Little Word for the year.

 Merry Christmas. May you all shine this season. 

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!

Stop by KeriRecommends for today's roundup.