2014: Year O’ Fun

I love that culture has been riding the wave of choosing a word or concept to focus on each new year as opposed to a long list of resolutions that sound like working out EVERY DAY, worrying less, meditating and journaling an hour a day, and eating less French fries and more kale.

In the past when I comprised a list of resolutions I inevitably felt profound failure around the morning of January 23. (It may have had something to do with that fact I would go balls to the wall and include 37+ resolutions. It seemed perfectly reasonable at the time.) Regardless, the list wasn't happening.

By February 1, forget it. A new year is a mere eleven months away and the list can wait until then... again.

Since my extensive list of ideals hasn’t worked well, one simple word makes things more manageable. It focuses me and it offers an opportunity to open my heart to creativity as I engage how that word will manifest itself in the following 365 days.

I kept the same word for 2012 and 2013 because I really needed work on it. My word was PEACE. Choosing “peace” was like signing my soul up for CrossFit. What a gloriously messy, beautifully hard journey it was. I don’t think we learn through hope but through experience, and my experiences allowed me the opportunity to find peace despite/in/through them.

Now that I have mastered peace *(fiction), I have chosen FUN as my word for 2014. 

I don’t find myself to be a naturally fun person and at times it’s hard to put down work and the many responsibilities of adulthood to just enjoy life. Laugh. Let loose. Let GO. I gravitate toward people who I perceive to be fun and then I ride on their fun train for miles on end, but it’s time for me to adopt this for myself.

So bring on water coloring, trampoline gyms, bikes on the beach, fancy cocktails, weekend trips, new hiking trails, zoo passes, cooking classes, dancing, rock climbing, live TV tapings, roller skating, ice skating, whatever-skating, Pinterest DIY projects, camping, concerts, new books, shooting ranges, and many, many, many nights of playing Cards Against Humanity.

You look good, 2014. Here's to more laugh lines around my eyes and a fuller, freer heart.