Doing

Over the course of this month I have seen several bloggers picking out a word by which to guide their lives for the coming year. I had never heard of this practice, but some folks were retiring last year's word which means that it's a tradition that is at least a year old (and probably longer). :p

I didn't sit down right then and there to figure out what my word would be, or even if I would have a word. But in the past few days I have felt a grasping at something, a need to identify an underlying course. And it clicked, just now, with the word "doing".

I am very good at dreaming. And with a little baby and a toddler it is difficult to really get involved in anything for any meaningful length of time, or make any progress, or get anything done that isn't immediately undone. And so I have been dreaming. Daydreaming. Novel dreaming. Planning dreaming. Pinterest dreaming. Even very necessary restructuring-my-own-ideals dreaming.

But all of that is invisible to little children. And it is worse than meaningless because it takes me away from them and into my own head. And when I see B being a gardener, or a worker or a "cooker" I see what does have meaning for them: "doing".

So, my word for this year is "doing". Not necessarily "accomplishing". Or "finishing". But "doing".