The Word for the Year: Engage

The year ended in a swirl of family, driving and illness. But I am back now and ready to get going on this beautiful year of 2013. Last year began with anger, unemployment, and serious medical issues. This one is beginning with creativity, organizing, and learning. Last year I chose the word collaborate but it wasn’t until the last months of the year that I truly was able to put that into practice.

This year the word Engage chose me. I’m not sure if it is a theme and a hope like last year but more of a command. I should not just do or try but actually engage in what I am doing.  It is so easy to let yourself drift, to be spending time with Alder and want to check facebook. That cheapens the experience for both of you. There is more value in the moments between people where they are truly the other person’s main focal point. Perhaps it is my age but I am constantly turned off by how some of my friends and family will pick up their phone and text or get on facebook while they are spending time with me. So I am going to commit to focusing on the people I am with. Of course, living with people means that there will be sometimes when my focus will be split but I am going to take more time to intentionally act the other way.

But Engaging is about more than how one acts with other people. For me the biggest shift I crave is involving myself the actions that I am doing deeply. As I start back to school this January I need to prepare myself to take classes for the first time in ten years. I need to give myself time to focus, to engage with the material and the projects required of me. Since I am going to school to learn new skills, coarsely to make money, I need to also be engaging with the people around me so that I can come through next year in a position to really make money doing this interesting thing that I have chosen.

On a deeper level it means that I really do this with everything, whether it is cleaning the kitchen or making bags and art kits for the shop I need to look at every one of these activities as important and engage with them, not only to increase the quality of what I am doing but to be happier. When I am not engaged in what I am doing I tend to get angry and resentful of what ever the task I am doing. But when I let what every I am doing be the focus I relax, get more done, and feel happier about what I am doing with my life in a larger picture.

So I am here to engage, with ideas, with tasks, with creativity, with friends.

What is your word for the year?