Do you have a word for the year?
Last year on Epiphany Sunday (early in January) I drew this week's word as my "Star Word." (If you are unfamiliar with this practice, you can read more about it here). It became a guiding point for so many of the decisions I made throughout 2021.
Openness: lack of restriction, free from obstruction.
Author Anne Lamott encourages a life built on openness in this book when she writes: “If we stay where we are, where we're stuck, where we're comfortable and safe, we die there... When nothing new can get in, that's death.” The counterpoint is also true: if we are alive, we can be OPEN.
As I settled into this word last year, what I noticed right away is that it's really much harder than it looks. For example, in your week--
Will you pout because things don't turn out as planned? Or will walk into a new day with openness?
Will you hang your hat solely on belief systems that have always worked for you? Or will you let openness lead you to what you need now?
Will you follow through with commitments simply because it is what you've always done? Or will you allow openness to re-recreate your schedule when the nudge comes?
In fact I would describe openness like walking through a dark cave. You know there is light somewhere. You know that just as you came in, you will go out. But all the "getting there" is very, very foggy.
For to be in a state of openness, you have more questions than you do answers. You are more lost on the path than found. You have more question mark prayers than you do resolute declarations.
Yet, openness is not about what your life looks like at any given moment. It's about HOPE.
If you are up for this openness challenge this week, pause for a moment. Put your hands in your lap. Open them palms facing up. Imagine what you'd like your hands to be more full of right now. More peace? More clarity? More____?
Sit with your Creator in the possibility of what might be next.
Waiting in openness with you-
XO
Elizabeth
