Word for 2018

Instead of making a New Year's resolution, my friend Pam chooses a word that will guide her year. I like this idea because I am not a goal-maker in general. I'm not a list maker either, and when I do make them in a moment of wild ambition I end up feeling bad that I never stick to it.

So this year I want to have a word, too. And my word is: 

CHANGE

This probably seems obvious. Isn't the whole point of making resolutions and goals and all that to change? Whether it is changing our body or our attitude or how we react or how we spend our free time, resolutions are all about change. 

But I want to embrace the change itself this year. Last year someone told me I had changed. And they didn't mean it in a good way. For months this bothered me. I clinged to the idea that I hadn't changed. Finally my friend Stephanie, after listening to me talk about it, told me these words that made me stop fretting: Of course you have changed - we all change and that's a good thing - living life and our experiences change us. 

And that's when I started appreciating the me that has changed. I'm not the same person I was last year, three years ago, ten years ago. Places I've lived and people I've met and experiences I've had have changed me. People that claim to have not changed either sadly haven't, or they are fooling themselves. I don't mean changing our personalities out of a desire to be accepted, or drastically changing who we are in appearance to attitude. I mean the small changes in our outlook, attitude, desires, world view that comes from the experiences we have.

Like a leaf that changes from a bud to a green leaf to a brown crisp to nothing and then back to a bud, change can be transformative. 

And this year I will embrace that.