My "Word of the Year" for 2020
This was a blank field 3 years ago 😍
Yes, I do realize it’s July, and I’m just now choosing a word of the year. Actually, I don’t think I’ve chosen one since 2016 when we moved back to Tennessee - it was the year we lived in our rental house - a quiet, settling, abiding year that we needed desperately at the time. Towards the end of that year, we were getting seriously restless and felt the need to build something again. That’s when we found the farm!
Now, 7 months in to 2020, I've discovered my word, thanks to the encouragement in my Cultivate What Matters Powersheets Goal Planner given to me by my sweet friend Suz.
My word is…
RECLAMATION.
Ahhhh, I just love it. It was sparked when I read this line near the end of Anne Bogel’s latest book, Don’t Overthink It:
“What if instead of wasting our time overthinking, we focused on the good we might do? Small destructions add up - but so do acts of renewal. What if we sought out these small acts of reclamation? How great might the ripple effect be for our families, our communities, our world?”
I haven’t been able to get that word out of my mind since.
This year, I’m writing my first book, something I’ve dreamt of doing since I was a girl. It’s time to reclaim the true parts of myself that have been dormant - the unafraid person I was before people-pleasing, before caution, before insecurity.
It means doing my part to reclaim and redeem the land with every act I do on the farm, even the hardest ones - taming the weeds that bite back, pushing through discouraging days when I feel aimless and exhausted, poring over growing plans and financials.
It means using my voice to speak up for orphans and the estimated 40 million people who are CURRENTLY trapped in modern-day slavery. As a free person, I can use my resources to help reclaim freedom for them.
Finally, reclamation is pushing away the sides of me that have been absorbed in overthinking, ruminating, and worrying for far too long. So much so that I don’t recognize myself sometimes - how did it get this bad?
Reclamation takes ACTIVE work. It also implies that I have a right to something that’s always been mine. And I do. As a child of God, I have a RIGHT to live freely.
These things are freely available to all of us…
Ultimate peace regardless of circumstance or what other people think I should be doing, what they think of my work, or the way I live my life.
Joy in the midst of really hard times (like financial blows, broken relationships, conflict).
Hope that everything will turn out okay - our entire world isn’t doomed. And unconditional love by the one who delights in me. “I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights, and I live in the unshakeable kingdom of God. The kingdom is not in trouble and neither am I.” (James Bryan Smith) Repeating this quote to myself over and over!
These promises have always been there. They’re there for the taking. I just need to reach out and reclaim.
