2011 Word of the Year

With 2011 fast approaching, it is time for me to pick out a word for the year.  I want to pick a word with purpose.  A word that i feel will encompass so many things for me in the coming year.  Last night i sat down with the dictionary and a pad and started writing words that i thought of...then looking at the definitions and trying to really think through my word this year.  I don't want to just think of a word, say it's going to be mine for 2011 and be done. 

I really do believe that words have power.  Last year my word was change.  As we all know, change comes in many forms, all the time.  I think i may have gotten more change than i bargained for, but the change was not what i expected. I expected a change in my life, such as pursuing my dream, but i didn't have enough action planned out to make it happen.  A quick recap of my past year.
January-my grandfather passed away
Feb/Mar-started having health problems that have ended up lasting most of the year
the middle months consisted of doctors and more doctors trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me, with no answers, and a hell of a lot of money thrown in.  Also in that time Isabelle fell, and messed up her teeth(thankfully not bad)
November-my great-grandmother, the woman i most admire, the woman who loved our family more than anything, passed away suddenly.  At 99 years old. 

There has been a lot of HARD change this past year.  Stuff that happened around me, that affected me deeply.  None of the change was something that I had put into action and made happen.

After thinking last night, I thought of a word that seems so simple when you see it.  But it embodies so much.  It holds the power for me to do what I want to do.  What is it, you ask...this word with so much meaning and so much purpose....

....................................................FREE.............................................................

I want to be free from all that is holding me back...whether that be my fears or doubts, or money, or others' believing it is going to be too hard to do.  I want to be free of my worries. I want to be free, in a sense, from my body image.  From the perceptions and comments from others about my body weight.  There was nothing I could have done. I lost weight because I was sick. I want to be free from those thinking I am too skinny....that my body is not perfectly okay.  Because it is.   I want to be free from a society that is doing it's best to cage us in....make us all relatively the same.  Caging us in like a wild animal that needs to be tame.  I don't want to be tame...i want to be me, crazy and free, blowing in the wind like a bird in flight.    And most of all, I want to free myself to pursue those goals I would like to achieve.  Those dreams that are so big in my mind, but really when I push myself to go after them, will seem so much smaller.  I want to free myself to do more based on what my heart feels rather than what my mind thinks.  I want freedom...the state of being free.  I want to go back to my free-style kind of art...the kinds that is so imperfect, yet so perfectly me.  I want to freelance. I want to have free will.  This word encompasses all that I want for 2011...and I hope to make a piece of art soon centered around my word.  I don't know what it will be...a layout, a canvas, a cover for an art journal. 

I also want to be free to create different forms of art again.  I have gotten so wrapped up in thinking i have to do the same things over and over.  Layout after layout after layout.  I should not limit myself to one art form.  I love all art forms. I love painting, and used to do it.  I loved doing some art journal pages, but never stuck with it.  I love photography(as you all know) and want to become more artistic with my own style in that.  There are so many ways that I am going to be free in 2011. 

What is your word going to be?  I am interested to see everyone's words this year.

Love, Jess

You have read this article with the title 2011 Word of the Year. You can bookmark this page URL https://playing-home.blogspot.com/2010/12/2011-word-of-year.html. Thanks!