One Little Word

Megan from the amazing Bloom Blog published a really neat post earlier this week. She talked about a project, of sorts, that she's taking part in this year called One Little Word, and I love it! I'm going to participate, too.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions, because I think it's a totally meaningless tradition that most people just do because everyone else is doing it and they feel like they should, too (much like matching socks. These aforementioned reasons are precisely why I DON'T wear matching socks. Or shoes. Or gloves. You get the idea.). I mean, seriously? So many New Year's resolutions are very vague promises that people make and then forget about or give up on by the end of January. If you ask me, a resolution means nothing if it's just made as part of a tradition. There needs to be a true committment; an underlying passion for it to be successful. But that's an entirely different rant. :)

And yet, don't get me wrong; I certainly believe that there's always room for improvement in life! (Especially my life!) And I really like the idea of One Little Word: choosing one word to define you and the year 2009. I toyed around with a whole bunch of ideas before finally settling on one. (Did you all take notice of that? I, the Indecisive One, made a decision. YEAH! There should be thunderous applause coming from the audience right now!)

*drumroll*

My One Little Word of 2009 is genuine. My goal for this year is going to be to live my life as genuinely as possible. I think this word has particular relevance to my life lately because I've really be struggling with being genuine on so many different levels.

According to my dictionary, genuine has three definitions, and all three apply to my life and my goals right now.

1. authentic; real
I have a major tendency to try to please people, and a direct result of that is that I often try to act in a certain way to measure up to their expectations. My best friend recently confronted me about this and we talked about how, not only is the "acting" not necessary, but it's not true. It's not real. It's not genuine. Our discussion really made me aware of the many ways that I'm not being "real" in so many aspects of my life and I am determined to change that!

2. free from pretense, affectation, or hypocrisy; sincere
Sincerity has been a big focus of mine over the last few months, and I want to continue to make it an important part of life in 2009, too. I really believe that it's important to be honest with people and tell them how you feel. The two people in the world that I most enjoy talking to and being around are the two who I know will be brutally honest with me, no matter what. Whether this means confronting a friend about a touchy issue, asking how someone's day is going or saying "I love you", it all means nothing unless the intention is truly sincere. It drives me crazy when people ask me "How are you?" but clearly don't care about my answer!

3. descended from the original; pure in breed
When I read this, the first thing I thought of was one of my favorite passages from I John.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
--1 John 3:1-2

I love this passage because it reminds me that I AM a child of God; that I was created by Him for a specific purpose. My life has meaning and value and even when I can't see what He's got planned for me, I can trust that He is leading my life and knows what's in store. Especially in this crazy year, when I'll be facing so many changes and new situations, these are thoughts I need to keep in the front of my mind. Part of being genuine, of being pure is remembering WHOSE I am. When I do that, all my doubts about self-worth and worries about the future disappear.


I've taken Megan's suggestion and posted pink post-it notes all over the place (my mirror, in the bathroom, on my computer, on the fridge, on the radio in the car, on the cat) to remind myself of this new goal. It's going to take a lot of work and a lot of God's help for me to truly implement this in my life this year, but hey, I'm determined!

I strongly encourage you guys to take on this challenge too; I'm quite curious to hear what your One Little Words are!

Packing:

abhorrent, abominable, alarming, appalling, atrocious, awful, bad, beastly, contemptible, cursed, deplorable, depressing, despicable, detestable, dire, disgusting, distressing, dreadful, fearful, foul, frightful, ghastly, grim, grody, gross, gruesome, grungy, harrowing, hateful, heinous, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrific, horrifying, nasty, obnoxious, odious, offensive, repulsive, revolting, rotten, shocking, stinking, terrible, ugly, unpleasant, unsightly, very bad, vile, wretched.

Packing.

Gah.

[Who doesn't love Thesaurus.com???]


I leave for camp in 20 hours. I've packed nothing. I really should get to it. But I happen to harbor a hatred of packing. Now, don't get me wrong; I am SO PSYCHED!!!!!!! for camp, but the packing is always somewhat of a challenge, due to my abhorring the whole process and all. *sigh*
But my bed is totally covered with a variety of things I want to bring with me, so I really do need to transfer it all to the duffel, or else I shall be sleeping on the floor tonight...... and it could very well take me hours just to get upstairs to my room to begin the bed-cleaning-off process. After all, my procrastination skills are pretty darn amazing.

I'll be back Friday. If I remember and am feeling particularly loquacious, I'll try to preschedule some posts; however if it is bizarrely quiet here for the next 6 days, well, now you know why :)
I expect to come home to plenty of comments telling me how much I was missed!!!! :-P


[edit: Sunday 8:15am: Well now. Apparently my procrastination skills are much more well-developed and unbelievably amazing then even *I* thought. I managed to waste the entire evening last night. The stuff on my bed? Still there. I slept on the floor last night. I now have 15 minutes of packing time before we leave for church (which I am squandering away here, online, instead of upstairs with my duffel. Hmm.) and, if I'm lucky, there will be a whole hour in between church and leaving for camp in which I can eat lunch, change, and finish packing.
Yep. We're cooking now.]

For all you lexophiles out there....

I got this in an email today....it cracked me up!!!!!!!!

NEOLOGISMS:

(Neologisms are alternate meanings for common words.)

Arbitrator \ar'-bi-tray-ter\: A cook that leaves Arby's to work at McDonald's.

Avoidable \uh-voy'-duh-buhl\: What a bullfighter tries to do.

Baloney \buh-lo'-nee\: Where some hemlines fall.

Bernadette \burn'-a-det\: The act of torching a mortgage.

Burglarize \bur'-gler-ize\: What a crook sees with.

Control \kon-trol'\: A short, ugly inmate.

Counterfeiters \kown-ter-fit-ers \: Workers who put together kitchen cabinets.

Eclipse \i-klips'\: What an English barber does for a living.

Eyedropper \i'-drop-ur\: A clumsy ophthalmologist.

Heroes \hee'-rhos\: What a guy in a boat does.

Left Bank \left' bangk'\: What the robber did when his bag was full of loot.

Misty \mis'-tee\: How golfers create divots.

Paradox \par'-u-doks\: Two physicians.

Parasites \par'-uh-sites\: What you see from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Pharmacist \farm'-uh-sist\: A helper on the farm.

Polarize \po'-lur-ize\: What penguins see with.

Primate \pri'-mat\: Removing your spouse from in front of the TV.

Relief \ree-leef'\: What trees do in the spring.

Rubberneck \rub'-er-nek\: What you do to relax your wife.

Seamstress \seem'-stres\: Describes 250 pounds in a size six.

Selfish \sel'-fish\: What the owner of a seafood store does.

Subdued \sub-dood'\: Like, a guy, like, works on one of those, like, submarines, man.

Sudafed \sood'-a-fed\: Bringing litigation against a government official.

Words and Meanings

Happy Birthday, C. S. Lewis!!

Today, (November 29, 2007) one of my favorite authors would have been 109! In celebration of his birthday, I googled some C.S. Lewis quotes. Here's one of my favorites:

"Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."

I love this quote because it applies directly to me :) I am forever using humongous, gargantuan words in place of teeny tiny normal (and rather dull, I must admit) ones, because I, being the crazy homeschooler that I am, loooove vocabulary :) However, Mr. Lewis is entirely right. But really, this whole phenomenon of stripping words of their true value is something that really bothers me. When we use strong words in situations when we don't really need them, their meaning becomes less and less intense. And slowly, throughout time, we begin to get desensitized to the true meaning of some amazing words.

Take love, for example. We have so over used love that it has lost so much of its meaning. "I LOVE chocolate!" or "Have you watched American Idol this week?! I love that show!" are exclamations we hear all that time. But what does "love" mean? Well, that could be a rather long, off-topic post, so let's check dictionary.com:

Love (v): to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for someone

So, as much as you might enjoy, savor or appreciate chocolate, or your favorite TV show, chances are, you probably don't feel "profoundly tender, passionate affection" for either of these things. (If you do, well, then you really need to get out more!!)

Love is a powerful thing. Love is what, more then anything else, characterizes our relationship with God. Through love for us, He sent His Son. Through love for us, Jesus took our place and died. Through love, we are forgiven -- over and over again. Through love, we have a place in heaven -- a place we do not and can not ever deserve. We cannot afford to lose the meaning of love, because it defines so much of what we believe in. Never forget John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that we may not perish, but have eternal life.

That's a pretty powerful love, if you ask me!! Something far more powerful then that which could descibe chocolate or TV :)

Now, please know that I'm not saying you should strike the word love from your vocabularly in order to preserve its meaning. All I ask is that you really consider what love means. We can see love whenever we look at God; we can learn about love whenever we read the Bible; we can experience love through our relationships with Him. Bear all this in mind -- because this is the true meaning of love.

With that being said, just remember to think about the meaning of the words you're using.

So, once again, Happy Birthday C. S. Lewis!

And, just a thought: even if you've all read "The Chronicles of Narnia", I highly recommend you read the series...or at least, the first two books...again. They just get better every time! Also, The Screwtape Letters is one of my all time favorite books -- a must-read!