after ‘burrow’-ing comes…

my word of 2016 was ‘burrow’. remember?

‘to dig in’,

‘to reach down deep’,

‘to surround myself with the things that make me feel safe and warm’,

‘to sort out the stuff weighing me down and emerge lighter and ready to rumble’,

and i did that

week after week in 2016, until i felt energized

and inspired. until i maybe even felt a little bit antsy for the next big thing.

then 2017 hit in all its political turmoil and dissension

but, along with that came new experiences,

new friends,

new freedom to explore,

new-to-me ideas and options.

it’s taken me nearly two months into 2017 to find the right word

but, here it is:

‘leap’.

yup, ‘leap’.

because it is time to jump into the things

that i want, but keep telling myself i am not ready for.

ha.

the ‘not skilled enough’ ‘not brave enough’ ‘not strong enough’ headgame

is something that i always have to ‘leap’ over to get anywhere.

do you?

i love old school toys,

especially the classic fisher price and playskool things.

as i poked about 2nd hand stores, i used to pick them up for my ‘future kids’

and now my actual kids love them

(it would have been ok if they didn’t-because i love them-but they do!).

my youngest was playing with this wooden mailbox the other day.

he carried it over to me and said,

‘there’s mail for you mama’.

i looked inside

to find my ‘mail’ which was this drawing:

do you know what it is?

i didn’t, so i had to ask. my youngest said,

‘it’s you, mama. you’re a bunny.’

normally, his pictures are much clearer, so i said,

‘why am i so blurry, baby?’

and he turned to me, tipped his head to the side a bit and said,

‘because you’re leaping. bunnies leap!’

and there it is, the word of 2017 is ‘leap’. you ready?

let’s do this!

‘leap’ taken from 22:29-31 of 2nd samuel.

a word for 2016

have you seen people on social media

talking about choosing their ‘word for the year’?

the idea is to pick a theme word:

to remind you of your goals, when you get distracted,

to clarify things when it all feels overwhelming.

typically, i am not

a fan of new year’s resolutions.

they seem too much like hype vs. realistic

and not enough follow through in general to interest me.

but the idea of a word, a cairn of sorts, to aid in the journey i hope to take in 2016?

the more i thought about specifically that,

the more i liked the idea.

i’m late in choosing,

but a couple of days ago out playing in the snow

i found my word (and 2016 has 49.5 wks left, so there’s plenty of time really).

i’m most often the most moved by visual things,

so here’s the photo that made me decide on the word.FullSizeRender

the word itself is ‘burrow’.

as in: to make a hole or tunnel, especially to use as a dwelling.

to me it also means a warm, safe place that you hole up in

like a bear’s winter den or even the shady tree

that a lion lives under.

for me in 2016, it means to burrow down past all the

stuff and layers (of both the physical and the emotional kinds)

that keep me from

getting at the real heart of what i want to spend my time on.

included will be weeding out distractions,

to free up both room space

and space in my head…

may the end of 2016 find me closer to being in the ‘right place’

inside and out, because i have burrowed down into the sweet spot

that has then become my burrow.

oh yeah.

‘den’ taken from 6:17 of daniel.