Words have Power!

One thing I learned in 2020: the power of words. This new year will mark a decade of me choosing a “word for the year.” The word I chose for 2020 was PROVOKE. You can read about that choice and reasoning in last year’s blog post. I think it is safe to say that I was provoked WAY beyond my comfort zone this past year. Things I could never have imagined, as who imagines living through a pandemic???, have come to pass. Well, are, rather, still in-process. 

Two thousand and nineteen (2019) was one of the best years of my life and the word for that year was, Enjoy. I’m taking a lesson from that playbook. After all the obstacles, isolation, restrictions, challenges, and forced stretches-beyond-comfort-zones offered up by 2020, I want NOTHING but FUN in 2021! It’s really very simple. The definitions are as follows:

**So you see that….”sickness takes all the fun out of life”!!! Well, I found that to be true. I have yet to be sick since before COVID-19 prevailed upon the globe. I haven’t had a cold or a fever or a sore throat. Nothing. BUT, I certainly see how a “sickness” takes “all the fun out of life.” So….may it be banished from our experience and may we all get back to having lots of fun with one another!

There were unexpected gifts wrapped within the challenging year that 2020 became for so many of us. I built new friendships. I rekindled long lost friendships. And I had a friendship fall apart. They were all part of growth and self discovery.

I explored new places in Turkey: Çanakkale, Troy, the historic Gallipoli Peninsula, the wine island of Bozcaada, and then Kaynarpınar, Dalyan, and Datça.

I learned, or rather am yet learning, how to be at peace with spending so much of “life” within the walls of my apartment (which are lovely and comfortable, thank goodness!), and working and connecting virtually. Technology can feel like chains and a burden, but in this time of “physical distancing,” I am appreciative of the connections and conversations made possible by the technology we have access to. We had a birthday party for my father and a Christmas gathering across five time zones, which is no small feat! Soon we will celebrate my niece’s, Makena aka #buttercup’s, first birthday in the same manner. Yes, technology has allowed me to not feel so terribly alone. 

I know that 2021 has more challenges and obstacles in store, for me personally, and for humankind collectively. Therefore I expect it could be some time before I can live fully in a FUN reality. Until that time I will look for seconds, minutes, hours….moments, when FUN is in charge, and I will therefore relish and revel in them! But I sincerely hope and wish to soon be fully living in FUN with freedom and no constraints. This is a short post, but screw it….all I want is simple and pure–Fun! Hope you and I can meet and do just that, together!

Any of you choosing a word to focus on for 2021???