2012 Word of the Year

I chose my very first Word of the year in 2009. My 2009 Word of the Year was Joy.

Joy has since become my Word for Life.  I want to remember daily to find Joy in my Journey.  Joy is a choice.

My 2010 Word of the Year was {re}.

A strange word, I know but it was my word.  You can read more about it here.

It was all about {re}turning, {re}fining, and {re}claiming.

My 2011 Word of the Year was Focus

I wanted to define and refine my focus.

I spend a lot of time contemplating and praying about what my word should be for each year.  I have discovered that when I do this my word finds me.  I don’t find it.

After much thought I had decided that my word was grateful. It was after I found the quote I used on my family Christmas card that my word found me.

I originally chose the quote because it had my Word for Life in it – Joy.  But I soon realized that you can’t have Joy without being Grateful.  The two are interconnected.  They are joined at the hip.

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.
Ralph H. Blum

  So I thought my word was Grateful.

Then one day I was out for a run and I realized that my word needed to be TWO words.  It was suppose to be BE GRATEFUL.  Gratitude is not just an attitude.  It is an action.  My Word need to have an action word – BE.

So my 2012 Word of the Year is….

This year I want to Be Grateful.  I want to show my gratitude through the way I live my life, the things I say and think and the things I do for others.

I have been given much and am richly blessed.  I need to Be more Grateful for all that I have and to show and share my gratitude on a daily basis.

My sweet friend Meg gave me this for Christmas and it expresses what I want my word to be all about perfectly.  I want to be GrateFULL every day.

There are days when that is easier than others.  But I have learned there is always something to be grateful for.  Thanks to Pollyanna for teaching me how to play the Glad game!

So 2012 is going to be the year full of  Being Grateful.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie,
Quoted in “Simple Abundance”, by Sarah Ban Breathnach

I am going to BE more Grateful by recording each day something I am grateful for in this cute little journal I purchased here

I am going to Be Grateful by expressing my gratitude for others more through handwritten notes and by developing and improving relationships with people I love and those I want to get to know better.

I am going to Be Grateful by sharing my time, energy and means with others.  Even when I don’t think I have enough to share.

I am going to record through photographs the big and little things I am Grateful for. (more on this later)

When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears. – Anthony Robbins

My gratitude is not going to be silent gratitude – it is going to be a loud and important part of my daily life.

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.
G. B. Stern

I have put little reminders around my house so I don’t forget to Be Grateful!