Some other day we will get back to the 2017 spring break finishing. and the amazing 2019 world series championship from our beloved baseball team. And the years of OneWord 365 that I didn't publish.
(here's a history by the way)
2012 - brave
2013 - grace
2014 - journey
2015 - wait
2016 - pursue
2017 - raw
2018 - listen
2019 - balance
2020 - enough
2021 - (no I won't spoil it by putting it at the top. You will have to read the full post)
Let's start with how did ENOUGH play out for this year?
I had intended to make this be an assessment of
* am I doing enough (in the arenas of attention / engagement with my kiddos, growth and development at work, exploring interests I've long left by the wayside, focus on my relationship with one particular person, exercise/health attention)
* where am I doing more than enough - and therefore should cut back (in the arenas of volunteer work, leadership roles rather than helper roles behind the scenes)
Things started off slowly for my focus on all of these things in January. and then on March 11 everything changed. (that's the day my kids last went to school in person). Enough took on a whole new spin, and rapidly at that.
I've spent the last 9 months focused on not the ideas I had, but also - what is enough with regard to physical distancing, wearing a mask, locking down before seeing family members. What is enough with regard to physical space - we learned that our landlords were selling our rental property that we were living in, and we moved. I am HUGELY GRATEFUL for a new-to-us place in the same neighborhood, with a fantastic configuration to support this work from home mama AND a space for each kiddo to do school at home. (Did I mention they are still school at home? They will be until the end of this school year. At least. I am hopeful that ENOUGH people will be vaccinated to facilitate a return to fully in person learning by fall 2021). I spend time each morning digging up enough energy to get through that day.
We are weathering current circumstances better than many, and I am grateful for that as well. I learned we had more than enough stuff, so we did a wonderfully freeing purge when we moved. I was reminded that even as we mask up and stay apart, my village showed up to do enough of the heavy lifting to help the move be easier than expected.
As for the volunteer time, that looks a little different, but I did assess where I was over extended and culled that back to be what feels like the right level of commitment for now. And made a note to revisit every year holistically, as well as every time someone asks for volunteers. I think this has been a welcome change.
As for the enough time invested in the kids - I think I struck a good balance of partnering with them in the new school-at-home-and-everything-looks-different-and-I-miss-my-friends-and-where-is-normal-mom situation, but not hovering too much. Though they might disagree a bit. (or a lot). They've grown a lot in their independence. Everyone takes turns cooking dinner (full meals with fancy stuff even) and doing dishes now. That's been a blessing - as it means I can put in my work hours doing the day, and don't have to go back online after dinner most days. Which in turn has allowed me to put some more time into reading - one of those things I love so much and didn't spend nearly enough time doing in the several years leading up to this one.
And as every single day brings something else in 2020 (today there's a power outage in town so half of the teachers and school kids can't even log on to the school programs), I think we all want to say enough is enough, and look forward to the brighter days ahead.
Which brings me to the word of 2021. We all spend a lot of time in "either or" mode. Things must be one way or the other. If this one thing is true then some other thing cannot also be true. The world is not a two outcome place. Real life is not always either / or. Therefore, in this coming year, I am looking at it from the perspective of "YES, AND". ( YES, I know that is two words AND there are no rules in OneWord365.) So often we hear "yes, but..." I am changing the conjunction of focus to and.
As we enter the last 9 days of 2020 - may you find enough love to carry you over the threshold to a new year, with vaccines, hope, renewed purpose and brighter days. Consider joining the friendly folks at oneword365 and seeing if a word focus rather than a resolution focus changes where you might be headed.
With love from here, I wish 2020 a (not so fond) farewell (and a swift kick in the pants for good measure) and 2021 a warm welcome.
2021: Yes, and.
