It’s a new year and many people put forth a valent effort to make real, positive changes in their life, especially one’s that affect their health and wellbeing. For the past five years, or so, I’ve chosen a word that becomes my word of the year. One that I mediate and pray on to see how it affects my life and watch to see how it manifests during the year.

This year, it was a bit challenging as the word was slow to come. Once it had arrived, I got really excited about it, but it was short lived. A week later, another word kept pecking at me. I simply could not get it out of my mind. The more I thought about it, the more I realized, it needed both words as they work together, I think, for my greatest good.

In a previous newsletter, I spoke about cleaning out clutter to free up space in all areas of our life. For me, getting rid of materialistic matter is easy, however, discarding the hurts and emotional junk is another story altogether. One of my words that kept coming to me was release. That word takes on many meanings. It is a verb, an action, that requires energy. What does release mean to you?

For me, it’s a reminder to work through my “baggage” I’ve collected in life. Sadly, I’ve gathered some ideas and patterns that don’t serve me a good purpose, yet, for some reason, I hang onto them like that familiar pair of comfortable slippers. Releasing does require an action, and I confess, I can just get lazy in not working through it. As a result, those patterns keep going making it even more difficult to change, and it will take longer to reach my highest potential.

The other word that keeps coming up again and again is elevate. How do I as a human in this world elevate not so much myself, but others? The current culture seems to slant toward self, and while, I think understanding self and having boundaries are important, our society often pushes each other down so make ourselves seem more important. How many times have it just not listened to what is being said because I was thinking of what I wanted to say? Rather than love our neighbors, we choose to love ourselves more. What I’ve been learning recently, in church, are ways to be a missionary in my city without compromising my values and beliefs. It’s about loving my neighbors when I’ve been hurt by them.

I think by releasing my own ideas and allowing myself to see another person’s perspective and give credence to their life experiences and what they have been through will allow me to elevate them to a place of love and kindness. When I reflect my younger days of absolutes, I’m embarrassed by some of my reactions. I didn’t love my neighbor, rather, I tried to enforce my own values on them.

There is a huge division in our society today of verses.

·      Democrats vs. Republicans

·      White vs. Non-White

·      Men vs. Women

·      Straight vs. LGBTQ

·      Parents vs. Children

·      The list goes on…..

This year, my focus is to work to release what is no longer serving me physically, emotionally and spiritually, in order to elevate myself to the person God has set forth in me. Today, I will seek to understand, lean in with curiosity, and respond with love. Won’t you join me?