New Year, New Word, and New Relationships

Well hello there beloved reader and Happy Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready for 2020.  It has been a bit since I've had time to write down some words that are worth sharing.  I sit and type these words with a full heart and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for this beautiful life. For a whole month I had all 4 of my Fab4 home and we had some fun making memories together. The sink was overflowing.  The shoes left around the house were being tripped over. BUT the memories being made were a priceless treasure to me. As I put Chloe back on a plane to NY Friday morning I didn't cry, there was no moping..(ok maybe a lil mopey later that afternoon, but I think that's only because the caffeine wore off) mostly there was  only  'Comfort and Joy' knowing that our time together was well spent.  I'm sure the reason for that comfort and joy is because of some thoughts I want to share with you beloved reader.   

I have been thinking that with this new year I would like to set a (dare I say the word...) GOAL to write more frequently, but that being said let me tell you about the relationship I have had with the word goal.  I'm not sure why, but somewhere along the years I stopped being friends with the word "goals." Maybe, its my non-committal attitude(even though I've been committed for 25 years now to one amazing man) or my live  "foot loose and fancy free" inner spirit of spontaneity that resists the word GOALS, but this year I have decided we should be friends again. It's not that I ever thought it was bad to have goals, but whenever I set them in years past, pre New Years word era, I epically failed at them.  In the years when I was a goal setting person if I didn't meet the goal I set I would get utterly depressed, or as Anne with an  'E' would say I fell into, "the depths of despair" so I just decided we were not going to be friends anymore.  But, this year there is a stirring to re-kindle that relationship of having goals or at least think about having goals.  Instead of having goals for several years now I have prayed for a word to inspire my year in a broad non committal way this has worked wonders in keeping me out of that depth of despair failure frame of mind.  Last year however,  my New Years Word was Rejuvenate and boy howdy did I love, and become friends with that word.  I wanted desperately to bring back into my life some things that I had long let go of for no in-particular reason.   What I learned in the process of this word taking action in my life  was that part of rejuvenation taking the drivers seat of life you have to allow for the doors of your soul to be opened back up to what may have been set aside for survival sake. The word Rejuvenation is not a "survival mode" word and that's what I wanted, and set out to do and prayed would happen last year. I wanted to get out of survival mode life, and into a more intentional way of living and being. Thankfully, setting that word at the forefront of my soul as an intention WORKED!!  So much so, that now I'm open to this New Year having some goals, and like a cherry on top I will add a WORD of intention. My main goals for this year I will keep private for now, just because this relationship is new and ya know you can't go blasting new relationships on Social media too soon... LOL!! However I'd love to share with you beloved reader My NEW word for this year, which came to me by way of a quote I saw on Social media right before Christmas; "fling wide, then, the portals of your soul.  He will come with that LOVE which you long to feel; he will come with that JOY into which you cannot work your poor depressed spirit, he will bring PEACE which now you have not;  he will come with his flagons of wine and sweet apples of love, and CHEER you till you have no other sickness but that of love o'erpowering,  LOVE DIVINE."  -Charles Spurgeon
That quote really resonated with me, not because I didn't already have Joy or Peace in my life, but both of these things I could always use more of. Then after my birthday I saw this sign, that I fell in deep like with... so  I treated myself to this sign that I do believe I might leave up all year as a reminder of what brings me "Comfort and Joy."

And JOY is the word for me in 2020. Unspeakable  Joy  is  Rising in my Soul... As I was looking back at last years blog post for the New Years word I read what I wrote at the end of  my blog regarding joy; "There is joy once again. Joy that doesn't pass away with the cruel, harsh winds of life. Joy that is the underlying current of my heart. Joy that isn't affected by how much is in my bank account or my closet. Joy that doesn't leave me even though two of my four are no longer under my roof. (currently only one who left for NY is now no longer under this roof)  Joy from knowing my source of rejuvenation will never leave me or forsake me.   Joy in my salvation."
It's a funny thing when you read your own words and are like ... ya that's what I'm talking bout!! Circumstantial joy will come my way this year by way of;  my parents 50th anniversary  my 25th anniversary  Solomons graduation from High School Chloes graduation from Culinary Institute of America  Emma auditioning for the Voice again Isaiah starting his sophomore year on Monday at Carson High where both Mo and I graduated and I'm sure many other joys. 
But, my intent is that joy would still exude from my soul even when it's just a Tuesday afternoon and I come home to a sink full of dishes.  I hope and pray and intend to study more about the word Joy and continue to be friends with the word 'goals' and even do more than think about setting some goals. 
So here's to all that and more! Happy 2020 beloved reader,  there is  Nothing But Love for you here!