joy tidbits 02
My second joy tidbit is to start where you are.
Where do I find myself on the map of today?
Often, I have missed out because I believed there was only one direction toward accomplishment.
My mentality has been akin to the perpetual wait-until-Monday cycle or to stall, pushing whatever I was after to an item on next year’s goal list.
I have looked at the map and believed the pushpin of my life should have traversed farther along an envisioned path. In reality, the poked hole in my map is always my starting place, a good and worthy place.
To add another layer to this faulty thinking, I have lived as if someone was looking over my shoulder, grading me.
I have written previously about using the One Line A Day journal. I started in 2021, barely.
I began again in 2022 and gained momentum and consistency over the following years.
I will admit to wanting a “perfect” day-by-day accounting of my thoughts over five years of entries when, in actuality, what I now hold in my hands possesses a real look at my life.
Within these pages hold the miraculous and the boring.
Some sentences bring a smile or a flash of memories easily forgotten if not jotted down.
There were gaps when I slowly recovered my health and wrote with unrecognizable handwriting.
I feel incredibly blessed to see and read it all because of its imperfection. I am the sole reader and not someone else who might dispatch a random letter grade of their choosing.
If I were determined to be led by my desire for perfection, I would put the journal on the shelf or in the recycling bin due to the probable threat of failure or would have excessively purchased new journals until I could do it “right.”
Where are you on your map?
How can you start precisely at the position of the pushpin marking your place?
My word for 2023 was BREATHE. This word proved to be prophetic in many ways.
My word for 2024 is ONWARD.
The other day, I made an acronym for my word, to consider one aspect of what this word means to me, related to starting where I am.
I used one moment instead of an hour or a day because sometimes a moment is the best we can do.
Onward is simply placing one foot in front of the other, not dwelling on the past or feeling weighed down by expectations.
The month of March has held some tenderness as I am days from when my health struggle began a year ago.
Reflection, looking back, is essential.
It is a short pause to reveal what was and what is now.
It is often the place where gratitude may come to rest and dwell.
Onward, my friends.
What is one small moment that can allow you to move forward?
Start where you are.
