Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The Word of the Year is...

What a wonderful way to begin. Waking to a sunshine bright morning, cool, crisp and clean as only a morning in January can be.



New Year's Day.



I didn't get up until nearly 9:30AM, thanks to my husband getting up ridiculously early to turn off the alarm cat by feeding him the first of a minimum of six tiny cans of overpriced cat food.

Not that I wasn't ready to wake up.

Last night I dreamed that I was dreaming and in THAT dream I was being chased by several ghosts or people past, ghosts of people still breathing of their own accord and one as yet unseen creature. I 'woke up' as my dream husband reassured me that he would 'love me no matter what I continued to say' as I lay in bed shaking as though the New Madrid Fault had discovered twerking. But this was STILL a dream, which I was acutely aware of but could not seem to wake myself up from. With the desire to WAKE UP in my head my dream self then moved on to some sort of food truck ferry which was moving us back and forth across a tiny river with no goal in mind but to clean up the food truck kitchen and make one of my co-workers gain about one hundred pounds.

My subconscious was thrilled when Bart came in our room and opened our ridiculously noise 1970's era closet doors. My eyes flew open and the first thing I asked him was 'What did I tell you?' followed quickly by 'Did we have an earthquake? Cause I am pretty sure we had an earthquake."

To which he replied, "you didn't say anything, not that I would have heard you, I was too busy clinging to the edge of the bed while you sprawled over the entire center."

I began to deny this but quickly realized that my arms were completely wide open, reaching from the right to the left side of the bed. I also felt that perhaps I owed a couple of friends and my co-worker an apology for dream throwing them overboard and dream weight-gaining them.

It was quite a relief to crawled out of bed and into this beautiful morning. I felt sense of expectation and a tiny bit of disappointment that we had, in fact, NOT had an earthquake.



But isn't expectation what New Year's Day is all about?

It always finds me feeling slightly off balance but with an insane determination that anything is possible.



Which is probably why many years past I have resolved to lose weight, write more, exercise, read, learn French, not overdraft the bank account, lose weight...

A couple years ago the word 'resolve' and 'resolution' fell out of favor and suddenly I was 'reinventing' my self by losing weight, writing more, exercising, reading, learning French, not over-drafting the bank account, losing weight...



As I sat at the kitchen table, resolving to not make any grand resolutions, I watched the hosts of the Today show discussing how to become your best self in this New Year. The ideas were mostly the same, make wiser choices with your food, your time, your spandex. But one guy offered a slightly different view. His advice? Pick one word.** Let that word describe you, your life, your aspirations for this year. And as he talked, a word popped into my head:

Inspired



What a great word.

I can be inspired. My work can be an inspiration. I can see inspiration in others. It is all-encompassing.



Will I tell you what sorts of things I hope to be inspired to do?

No.

Will I tell you what things I find inspiring?

Nope.

Am I inspired to finally clean out the store room in the basement?

Hardly.



At least not yet.



For now, I will respond in the famous words of Captain Fantastic's mouthpiece, Bernie Taupin:

"If you ask how I am I will just say....Inspired."*








*This is a lyric from the song Better Off Dead. Which by title alone doesn't sound all that upbeat or inspiring but with it's heavy rock beat and semi-angry, Les Mizzy voice, it is a song that makes me want to break out in dance at the MetroLink station. It is sung by Captain Fantastic who is, of course, Elton John. A musician whose work I find quite inspiring. Especially the old stuff. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Bennie and the Jets. Island Girl. Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Although that last one included Kiki Dee. Who inspired in me a desire to where denim-look overalls and a semi-bowl haircut.



And there I go, telling you what inspires me.

THIS is exactly why I do not make resolutions. 


**After doing a little research, it seems there are many 'one word' groups out there. I have nothing against 'church-y' type groups and I am not here to promote one organization over another. I just found the idea quite interesting. Here are a couple of links I found in my research. If they speak to you, wonderful.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Got a Hairnet sighting? Other weirdness?