Balance

For quite some time I've been watching the year by year progress of Ali Edwards' one little word project.  My take on the project is as follows: first, choose one word to focus on for the entire year; second, explore this word and how it fits into the context of your life; third, use any creative construct to explore your thoughts, feelings, progress in terms of the word; fourth, let go and have fun.  After years of just watching Ali do her project, I have decided to take the plunge.  I've chosen the word balance.

Funny thing is...I originally chose the word open.  I even started the new year with the word open (please don't tell anyone).  Then one night I was thinking about the word open and how I wanted to integrate it into my life this year and the theme of balance kept on surfacing.  I started thinking that balance was the first step to being open.  After questioning whether it was OKAY to change my word.  I decided to give the rules a swift kick in the junk and did what worked for me.  So here I am with the word balance. 

Recently I was eating Chinese food at a restaurant next to my favorite scrapbooking store in my area.  When I opened my fortune I was a little irritated by what it said.  "You need to make many changes before you will be happy."  Nice, right?  I left the table a little irritated.  Over the next few days I started to think about it more and how it related to my word (at the time it was still open).  I've known for a while that changes were going to have to happen for some more positive things to start happening in my life.  Finding balance seems to be one of the keys.

I'm happy to be moving forward into this year with the word balance.  I'm going to try and keep a journal and create a layout at least once a month about my word.  At the end of the year, I'm planning to have a scrapbook completed focused on this one word (or possibly my first digital book).  If you'd like to know more about the project, Ali Edwards has information here.  If you're interested in participating, check out Ali's blog or the now defunct challenge site, One Little Word.  I hope everyone has a nice Sunday evening.  Until then...Happy Crafting!