2011 Word for the Year

Otter by Sydney Harper
Watercolor, 5 x 5 inches

I know, I was in the middle of art every day in November when I kind of dropped off.  Okay, so it ended up being art every other day. The painting above was my last one for November.  I will blame it on last year's word for the year, Abundance. For the past couple of years, I've chosen a single word to guide me for the year instead of a set of New Year's resolutions.

I have to admit there was plenty of abundance last year. There was happiness, depression, anger, laughter, work, struggles, celebrations, nervousness, new obstacles to overcome, new routines to learn, new jobs to learn, new friends, and much more. It seems like much more than one year has gone by. By the time November rolled around I was exhausted and feeling like I had a little too much abundance. Okay, an abundance of money would have been a nice touch but I had enough money. While I kept up with my art, there was just too much going on in my life to do as much as I wanted. Overall it was a good year and I had a lot of fun, but I'm ready for a little less abundance now.

My word for this year is Courage. It's the simple things that often give me trouble. Moving to another country by myself is a piece of cake. Picking up the phone to call someone can be terrifying. My dislike of phones is notorious. So it's those little things I would like to work on this year. I almost chose Release for my word. There's a lot of stuff I need to release and it would work for releasing my fears too. So I guess I'm keeping it as secondary word. So far the year is off to an excellent start, so I think I've made a good choice.