Good morning!  Happy New Year, and a very merry “kids went back to school today” day to you as well.  Hee hee!

Are you all sick of Word of the Year posts yet?  New Year’s resolutions?  I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year because it does seem to get rather monotonous with the theme of goal-setting, but you know what?  I just realized how cool it is that almost all of us write these posts–we are similar in that we are all striving to be better.  And if that doesn’t give you hope for humanity, I don’t know what will.  We all at least think about becoming better versions of ourselves at the beginning of a new year.  I love that.  Carry on, fellow humans, with all your dreaming and optimism.

My word for 2020 is BLOOM.

At first I thought I’d go with “blossom” or “shine,” but “blossom” only talks about the flower, and “shine” can very quickly morph into arrogance or presumptuousness.  “Bloom”, though–it encompasses blossoming and also brings to mind the phrase “Bloom where you’re planted,” which makes me think of the roots spreading through the soil and the stalk of the plant growing taller and straighter and sturdier; it’s a word that means multi-dimensional growth, rather than just focusing on the growth of one aspect of the whole.

So, BLOOM it is.

I’m encouraging myself to branch out in my social activities.  I’ll be showing up to local crafty guild meetings in my area and trying to find one or two that fit my preferences.  Friends AND crafty inspiration, yes please!  Joining my local guilds has been on my to-do list since the move the Washington, but getting the kids settled was my main objective when we first got here, and then 2019 had some sticky issues to work through, so I’m only just now getting to it, and that’s fine.  It’s going to be fun!

As far as growing taller and straighter and sturdier, I’m taking the time to re-establish healthier habits, both physically and emotionally, and consciously trying to push myself to learn more and try new techniques in my crafts.

And blossoming/shining…well, it’s hard to get flowers if you don’t plant some seeds.  I’m in the seed-planting phase right now, but I’ve already had a seed blossom in a short time–I applied to a brand ambassador for Blank Quilting Corporation, and they offered me a spot on their Social Sewing Team!  How cool is that?!  They’ll send me cuts of a soon-to-be-released fabric collection every other month, and I’ll make something and post it.

So there you go…you can’t harvest where you don’t plant a seed.  Lesson learned.  I’m eager to see what other sorts of opportunities start to grow from seeds I’m going to give myself permission to plant this year, and I’m optimistic that 2020 will be a year of great harvest.

I decided that I also needed two support words: Balance and Celebrate–the first to keep me from throwing all my eggs into the crafty basket at the expense of time with my family, and the second because I realized that I have no idea how to actually celebrate a good thing when it happens beyond saying, “Oh.  Yay.  That happened.”  Which feels incomplete and like I’m denying myself the full range of joy when it comes to personal achievements.  So, yay, another area in which to grow.

Isn’t it great that we can refocus and refine these lives of ours?  What a gift!

Do you have a word for the year?  Multiple words?  Or is it not your thing?