Happy New Year, everyone! Today is the first day of my month long Attitude of Gratitude.  For the next 30 days, I will be posting each day something for which I am grateful.  It’s a good way to start the new year — a good way to reset, adjust our perspective and start the year on a positive path.  And it sure is a great thing to do as we enter the bleak winter months — keeps our mind centered on something other than the piles of snow coming our way!

Today I am grateful for new starts, second chances and one word.  I have to admit, I am not a big fan of New Years Eve and all the hoopla surrounding it. Never have been. It’s one of those holidays where people just try too hard.  If you haven’t had a spectacular New Years Eve and done something exciting or glamorous then the evening has been a failure. What an awful way to end one year and start a new one! And it’s also a time when we give lots of energy to looking back and looking ahead — both of which can cause regret or anxiety in many of us.  Me?  I prefer to try and stay in the here and now.

But what I love about New Years is the new start, the second chance.  There is a prayer in the New Zealand Prayer Book that says : “What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done.  Let it be.”   Today we leave all that was in the past and start anew.   That is what life in God is like everyday.  Every morning is a new beginning,  a new chance to start anew — to love and care and be generous and forgiving.  The great theologian, my mother, used to always say: “Everyday is a gift.”  And that is what I am most grateful for today — a new day, a new beginning.

Many people start the new year by making New Year’s resolutions. They should probably be called  New Week’s resolutions because that’s about how long the average person keeps them — 6 days!  I recently read an article about a new concept.  It’s called One Word.  Instead of making resolutions, choose one word that will be your word for the new year.  It’s a word that needs to have depth, that will challenge you, and that will resonate with you.  Here’s a link to learn more about it and how to choose your word:  One Word 365 .

So, if you could choose one word for this coming year — a word that would challenge you, but not too narrowly, a word that could be applied to many different areas of your life, a word that speaks to the depths of your soul, what would that word be?   The author of oneword365 chose a word a few years ago that spoke to my soul.  The word was “nourish”.  That is what my word is going to be for 2014 — Nourish.  I want to really take the time to nourish myself in many different ways this year — physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  The nature of my life is that I spend much of my time nurturing and nourishing others.  This year, I want to take the time to really nourish myself.  Never done that before.  This is definitely my growing edge.

How about you?  What will YOUR word be for 2014? And what are YOU grateful for on this first day of 2014?

Blessings —

Betsy