trajectory of a life

I believe we are most beautiful when we are constantly shedding our old selves and moving into new light. ~Suki Waterhouse

I’ve given myself permission to enter this year more slowly. This decision was partly due to spending the final days of 2018 away from home and therefore an absence of my review and planning materials. Also, as much as I do love reviewing the year and planning for the coming, I really didn’t want to spend hours inside doing so when Hawaii was outside.

When we returned to the mainland, my priorities shifted from savoring sunshine and ocean to catching up on all that had occurred in our absence. I made time here and there for those reviewing and planning tasks but found myself allowing more time for their start and eventual completion. Although it took a bit of convincing, I knew the world would not end if I didn’t have everything in place to begin 2019 (and, it didn’t). The new year — and time itself — continues to move forward with or without a plan. The sun rises and sets and everything that happens in between and before and after still takes place.

All of this to say the reason we’re 27 days into 2019 and I’m just today finishing my word-of-the-year post. Perhaps even more apropos that my word is shed, which was decided long before my planning delinquency.

shed verb \ˈshed : to rid oneself of temporarily or permanently as superfluous or unwanted

I appreciate this definition of shed for a few reasons. One, I appreciate the use of temporarily or permanently. Shedding isn’t always about permanence. Sometimes it’s more transitory, growing space between. Secondly, the inclusion of superfluous and unwanted rings true with me, the former as it relates to stuff and expectations, and the latter for ridding ourselves of what does not serve and what I’ve been holding on to (physically, emotionally, mentally).

As I live this year with shedding as my guide, I hope to come out the other end with less as a means to living a more fulfilled life.

Prior words for the year + how to choose a word for the year:

• 2018: simplicity
• 2017: curiosity