23 is one of my favorite numbers. For this reason and a few more, I am ecstatic about this year.
23 is my line number. I won’t waste time or space here explaining this. If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, it won’t make much of a difference if I explain it. But whether you’re aware or unaware, it’s a number I will forever be attached to and I love that for me. It very much feels like the year of “23.”
But I’ve also done a lot of deep, challenging and necessary work over the last few years. I’d like to think that much of it started during my semester abroad in 2019. Since that time, I’ve felt like I was on a continuous journey to uncover, unpeel, discover, explore, rebuild, and reimagine.
I’ve dug deeper into my career and explored ways to express my love of teaching, writing and speaking. I’ve also experimented with community – meetings lots of people along the way. I’ve drawn closer to a few longtime friends, established new boundaries in some relationships and committed to intentionally fostering others. And I’ve accepted some tough realizations about
myself, like how I give too many too much access too soon and for often, too long.
This year, I’m embracing the art of LESS. I’m doing less of what I feel I should be doing and more of what I love doing … more of what brings me joy and flows with ease. I’m embracing relationships that feel GOOD to me! Relationships that are consistent and caring and compassionate. I’m giving myself grace, as well as freedom, to let all else go. And I’m embracing being extremely mindful, as well as cautious, about “when and where I enter.” I’m guarding my space, guarding my heart, guarding my time … guarding my peace.
2022 was GOOD to me. 2021 was a great year. 2020 was challenging, but instrumental. I believe with my whole heart that our lives – with all the ebbs and flows – CAN get better with time. But it takes effort. It takes courage. It takes shifting. I’m committed to making this year even better than ANY other.
Will you join me? What realizations about yourself launched you into this new year? What shifts are you willing to make? What – and who – are you willing to let go of? Hold on a bit tighter?
This CAN be the year of your imagination and MORE if only you’ll take the leap! What are you dreaming about for 2023?