My Own Best Friend

Choosing a word for the year is a concept described quite well by Christine Kane although I was doing this long before I read Christine's blog. Click on the link if you'd like to know how it works. Basically, at the start of each year, I choose a word that will focus my attention on achieving my intentions. Last year, my word was connect.

A few weeks ago, I read a verse in 2 Corinthians 8 that said - So here's what I think: the best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. At first I wondered why that verse jumped out at me. Later, when I thought about it being time to choose my word for the year again, I realized that that's what I was doing last year and that connect was to remain my word for 2010. It feels like I've only just begun and that there is so much left to learn with this word.

When I chose the word connect, I wanted to (among other things) connect with my healthy self, with improved balance between work and play, with healthy relationships, and with greater creativity. The path - of course - did not appear in the manner in which I expected. It has taken some interesting twists and turns.

Developing multiple food allergies and radically changing how I eat has connected me with a healthier self. Shutting down my business due to the economy and other circumstances beyond my control has shifted the dynamics between work and play. Knitting and sewing fashions rather than creating textile paintings has connected me with my creativity in new and personal rather than commercial ways. On the path to healthy relationships, many that I thought were healthy were found to be false and have gone by the wayside. Each twist has been a mix of the negative and the positive even as I trust that all are bringing me toward a greater good.

The absolutely most painful aspects of this year have involved relationships. Each of us has an issue that we deal with and while we may have all the justification in the world for why we're dragging that particular ball and chain around with us, we're still dragging it. Only by choice can we let it go. My ball and chain are labelled rejection and relationships. I so strongly believe that life is about relationships and - perhaps because of that - it's an area in which I struggle greatly.

I'm no longer willing to be weighed down by this issue. I want to proactively find a solution to managing it in my life. I have decided - as much as I am able - to not talk about it anymore. I'm the type of person who resolves issues by talking however, talking isn't doing the trick and it's time to do something entirely different. Instead of talking, I plan to use other means such as writing and painting and dance and music AND...

... my resolution this year is to be my own best friend. At the end of 2010, there will be a substantial difference in how I interact with myself and within other relationships and an increased level of inner joy and peace. Although my primary motivation in choosing this phrase is healthier relationships and particularly with myself, having spent many years working with words and resolutions, I know that the phrase will take me far and beyond that and will connect me in ways I can't even begin to count with my best life. I'm really excited about the potential.

Have a wonderful day & year. Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a phrase that I can remember, live with, grow from, and remain excited about for a year and the comfort of connecting