Intentionally 2014

In the last few days of 2013, twoFacebook statuses caught my attention. The first was a status that asked, “What’s Your Word?” As one who loves words along with having often reflected on the life of a woman of great spiritual depth who selected a word to focus on each year, I clicked on the included link: “My One Word – change your life with just one word.  The page included a Wordle of potential words and one of them seemed to leap out at me: INTENTIONAL.

I was reminded of a quote from Lewis Carroll’s  “Alice in Wonderland:”

“Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat.
‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.
‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”

I think we all know the road we take does matter. As a rather laid back, low-key, person, I am good at “going with the flow,” “rolling with the punches,” responding to what is. Although I don’t necessarily think those are bad things, I can’t help but wonder what my life might look like if what I did was, as the dictionary defines intentional, done deliberately.

The second status that caught my attention yesterday was a quote: “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” For the past several years I have been writing on two books: “Remembering it All: A Memoir,” and “Jacob and Eva” (a fictionalized family history) as well as two blogs – Donna’s Weblog and this one, “Notes from Life’s Journey.” In 2013, I did little more than make a few editorial changes in both books, and wrote nine blogs in 365 days – not much output for one who loves words.

Some of the areas in which to be intentional in addition to writing include healthy living, business opportunities, household organization and reaching out to others. So here’s to a year of living intentionally!