2018 - My Word for the Year

My story is important

Not because it is mine….
but because if I tell it anything like right,
the chances are you will recognize

that in many ways it is yours
Maybe nothing is more important
Than that we keep track you and I,
Of the stories of who we are
And where we have come from
And the people we have met along the way.
Because it is precisely through these stories
And all their particularities,
As I have believed and often said,
That God is known most powerfully and personally.
If this is true, it means that to lose track of our stories
Is to be profoundly impoverished
Not only humanly but also spiritually
I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets
And you are yours
Our secrets are human secrets
And our trusting each other enough
To share them with each other
Has much to do with the secret
Of what it means to be human.
~Frederick Buechner

All stories are true and some actually happened.

~Caryl Menkus Creswell

  My word for 2017 was story and yes it did have a profound
impact on me through remembering and hearing others stories.
About half way through the year another word came to me,
it was Kindness. It has stuck with me along with Story.
As I approach 2018 I find that I want to carry Kindness forward
into the new year, but add Courage to the mix.

My religion is kindness.

~Dalai Lama

Courage with Kindness is it, it will carry me through 2018.
To tell you the truth Courage scares me a bit, but
I know it is the word I need to embrace with Kindness.
The picture shows a roller coaster.
I find it is a good metaphor for Courage.
Sometimes there will be exhilarating ups
and sometimes terrifying downs.
Come along with me as I learn about Courage with Kindness.

 A pretty picture of two sharing a moment of beauty.
No other reason to post this picture, but that we need beauty
surrounding us.