All You Need is ...

Christmas is over and the new year approaches and I’ve been thinking about my word for 2012. My word for 2011 was “restoration” and now that it is December I can honestly say that it was the right choice. 2010 was definitely the year for healing. After the healing, it was time to be restored.

I have to admit that when I started to think about this I had to ask myself and answer myself honestly, “Have I been restored?” I thought long and hard about the answer and the only thing I could come up with was furniture restoration. I thought about that process. When a piece of old, beat up furniture is being restored it first has to be completely stripped and brought to its barest, most raw state before the restoration process can begin.

Yeah, I think that pretty well sums up my 2011. I felt old and beat up at the beginning of the year and through this process I now feel all shiny and new. I was stripped bare and I have been restored. Through much prayer, much faith and much belief I have been restored … not to my old self … but to a better version of myself. I’m happier. I smile more easily. I am much more patient and relaxed.

So what’s the word for 2012? What comes after restoration?

I’m ready to move forward. I’m ready to love. Not just in the romantic sense but I’m ready to let my guard down and open myself up to new relationships. After a certain number of years of being hurt by people I have built a pretty sturdy wall around myself. What I have discovered is that my wall not only kept me from getting hurt, but it kept me from being loved. It kept me from really showing love to others.

Love is the thing. I miss it. I miss intimacy. I miss the connection.

So the word for 2012 is simply, LOVE. Being brave enough to give it and being open enough to receive it.