I am so excited about 2013. Really, really excited. 2012 was a good year for me. I thought it might be. I love it when I’m right.
I also love the concept of choosing a word for the coming year. Last year my word was authentic…… This year, my word is intrepid.
I’m laughing a little, writing this, because if you wanted to find someone less intrepid than me, you’d have to look far and long. Trepid, that’s me. I have lived a life of trepidation, heck, I made trepidation into an art form. Or an Olympic sport. I could get a gold medal in fear and trembling.
But I’m getting better.
When I hear the word intrepid, I think of an explorer, hacking his/her way through a never-before-explored jungle. Stepping boldly and fearlessly over the giant snakes. Swinging over the foaming river on a vine. Sleeping under the stars, despite threat of attack by mosquito and hungry tiger.
Which, I think, nattily sums up most of our lives. Every day is virgin territory, a jungle where no foot has stepped before. Snakes rise up where you least expect them. Life rushes madly around us, and we have to find a way to traverse it and somehow stay intact. We get hurt, from little every day mosquito bites, to life threatening tiger attacks. And somehow, we make it through.
We make it through, regardless of our attitude. Fearful or fearless, the day passes anyway. Time slips by. Problems come, problems go. Some of us walk with timidity, some with fierce boldness. We get through life, either way. But all the fun, all the adventure, all the reward, gets sucked out when we live with fear and doubt and trepidation.
This year I’m going to do my very utmost to live intrepidly. To seize opportunities, and if need be, to create them. To live, not in my safely and carefully constructed comfort zone, but to reach out as f-a-r as my arms will reach, every day. To pull on my stout boots, grab a machete, and fight my way through the jungle.
Death by metaphor.
I would love to know what your word for 2013 will be, and why. In fact, I’m going to offer you an incentive to share. I made this mini quilt last year, and it has been sitting here, waiting to find its place. Its place is with…… you? Leave me a comment, and I’ll use the handy dandy number generator to pick one. You’ve got until the end of the week.
In the meantime, I’m starting a new quilt, inspired by last week’s photos of moss on a garden wall. Exciting!