New Year's Intention

We all resolve each year to make changes, improve ourselves and our lives. Even if we don't admit it, most of us see the New Year as a time of renewal. A new calendar, a fresh slate. Often our resolve is dwindling by mid-January and gone with the melting snow.

This year I resolve to try something new. I read a blog and then another about a Word of Intention that can replace the traditional New Year's Resolution. It's a non-specific word that you internalize and keep with you through out the year.

This year my Word is balance. I chose it for several reasons, not the least of which is that I have terrible balance and tend to need to tread slowly and carefully when I encounter obstacles like uneven terrain on a hike, or difficulty managing my work, family, personal life and marriage. I often take on too much of one thing to the detriment of all of the others. I am so careful where I place my feet that I manage to bang my head into the low hanging branches (and not just on the trail).

I hope this word takes me to other places and discoveries. My focus is often so deliberate and intense that I miss seeing them most basic and wonderful things in the periphery.

For more on the Word of Intention read the blog From Deeper Water and then Christine Kane's blog where the idea seems to have originated.

Happy New Year!