Word for 2022

 

 Sometimes a new word for the year comes through a lot of soul searching and looking through lists on the internet. Other times, it comes and slaps you in the face and says, "choose me".  I think you can guess that my face is still smarting right now.

 I find that the Word of the Year that requires research gets easily forgotten in the year. The Word for 2021 is Respect, and I had to look on my blog several times this year to see what it was!

Sometimes when I make a post here, I worry that it might be boring. I worry that the weekly posts that say whether I stitched for 15 minutes a day may be tedious for my readers. I try to keep it interesting by including a photo or more, but I can't always show a WIP photo, especially with winter lighting. For my last post, I hadn't taken a lot of photos that week, so there wasn't much to share.

Then I had some books that were coming due to the library. One of them is Show Your Work! by Austin Keon  I've also been reading books about stories, like StoryWorthy by Matthew Dicks. Books take away from quilting time, but hopefully these books will make me make the blog more interesting next year.

 

The quote above is from Show Your Work!  I am not trying to gain more followers as this blog is more of a diary for me but I do want to make sure that I make it worth the time for the people who take the time to visit me . I do have a lot of interests and am continually seeking out more input. I read a lot of blogs and look at a lot of books.

 Here is a basic summary of the book. Some things I already follow. I share my work as I go along, without worrying about whether it is successful. I share things often, but don't have time to do that every day. 

I am going to work on telling good stories and teaching more. I want to share what inspires me, even when I don't immediately put it into practice. I can share more interesting things I have found and read while being careful not to infringe on anyone's copyright.

Can you think of any other ways I can make this blog more interesting?

My Word of the Year 2020

In 2019, my Word of the Year was Appreciate.  It was meant to make me more grateful for the things I have in life and to take the time to savor instead of rushing through life.

I forgot to add a gratitude every day or even to every post and eventually gave up on even trying to do it once in a while. And I had to keep looking up what my Word of the Year even was.

But I did find a way to incorporate it in my quilting.  I appreciated the joy of quilting and did not impose any restrictions to myself.  If I felt like starting a new quilt, I could, even if I had started others the previous week, even if my pile of UFOs was piling up. I could pick up whatever I felt like working on, even if there were others closer to completion, or newer, or older. I cleaned my sewing room thoroughly, turning everything inside out and appreciating owning all the supplies I had. I could buy more fabric even though I hadn't put away the last batch I bought.

Doing that, I found that I had an incredibly productive 2019. I made and finished more quilts than I ever had in previous years. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process. Instead of trying to slog through a bunch of self -imposed restrictions, I could follow the path of least resistance, the past of most joy, and manage to make many quilts while enjoying the process. This method helped me do even those things that seemed extremely difficult, like quilting big quilts on my little machine. I could add quilting stitches when I felt like it, and do something else until I felt like adding more quilting stitches.

For 2020, I want to continue along the same way.  Since Appreciate doesn't quite fit that, I looked for a word that went along with the theme and mood.

laid-back, relaxed, easygoing, at ease,equable, free and easy, easy,casual, informal, friendly, nonchalant, insouciant, unexcitable, , imperturbable, unemotional, unruffled, blasé, blithe, cool, collected, calm, and collected, composed, self-possessed, levelheaded, self-controlled, unperturbed, unflustered, unworried, unconcerned,  placid, peaceful, tranquil, serene, low-key, understated, downbeat, leisurely, unhurried, stoical, phlegmatic, mellow, forbearing, live-and-let-live, tolerant, unflappable, together, chilled, nonplussed

I've been told that I am laid-back, usually by people who wished that I were more assertive. This year, I am going to own it.

2019 Word of the Year

My word of the year for 2018 was confidence. My goal for this year was to quiet that voice, and say back, "Yes, I am sure" instead of thinking "I think so" and pushing through despite my lack of assurance.

Unfortunately I have to say that it wasn't very successful for me. It worked okay for the most part, but it didn't permeate everything I did, like the Clarity word I had used before. Part of the problem is that it isn't an ongoing idea that affects everything I do. I am normally confident enough in normal, daily things, so the word only needed to be used in those times when I wasn't feeling confident, and it is hard to not feel what I feel. Also I tend to be a humble person, and I'm not quite sure how to be humble and confident at the same time.

There isn't anything I wish I had the confidence to do that I didn't do, but I didn't reach out to do anything that needed confidence either.

Anyway, it is time to plan a new word for the year. This year, I didn't have to look for the word on a list of words like I did last year. It came to me shortly after Thanksgiving, when gratitude is the motto. I kept thinking about it and since I am still thinking about it, I will use it for 2019.

Appreciate

Appreciation is more than being grateful. It is seeing the value and worth of everything and everybody in my life. It is about recognizing things that are normally taken for granted.