Back in January, I wrote a piece about how I pick a Word of the Year to serve as an overarching theme for the year instead of a specific New Year’s Resolution. Now that it’s July, I want to update how that Word of the Year is working out.
The cool thing about having a Word of the Year is that I can come back to it at any time throughout the year and assess how I’m doing in a guilt-free way. With New Year’s Resolutions, I usually crash and burn within a month and never want to think about how I’d planned to read so many books or lose so many pounds. With a Word, it’s more about intent rather than a specific goal; it’s easy to check in mid-year and see how I’m living up to the intent of the word.
After I have selected my Word, I like to sit down and list the things that I’m planning to do or that my word makes me think of. That usually gives me a good starting place.
This year my word is Community.
With a word like that, I felt it was important to think about how I want to support the various communities to which I belong. So, at the beginning of January, I made a list of what I consider to be my communities. My list included:
- My family
- My extended family
- Some church groups
- Elementary School PTO
- The Magic Valley Symphony
- A local autism support group
- East Idaho Moms Collective
- My neighborhood street
Then I thought about things that I could do and continue doing to support my communities. Some of them were pretty easy; for example, I was already serving as the PTO Treasurer so I planned to just keep doing that job. Same with the Magic Valley Symphony. I was too busy to actually play in the symphony in the spring, but I still created a pre-concert slideshow for each concert. I count that as supporting a community.
Other ideas came to me about some new things I could do to support my communities. For example, this year I decided to send a birthday card to each of my nieces and nephews. This is something I’ve wanted to do for several years, but I never made it a priority. When supporting my extended family fell under my Word of the Year, I figured it was time to make those birthday cards happen. I made a list of all the birthdays and also all the addresses for each family. This took some time, but now it’s easy to keep track of sending out birthday cards. I’ve been able to send a card to each niece and nephew that’s had a birthday this so far year and I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to do the rest of the year.
For some of my communities, I wasn’t sure what to do in January, but I was open to the possibilities that the year would bring. In February, I received an email with details about the Ladies Retreat for my Bible Study Group. I hadn’t made an official goal to “Attend a Ladies Retreat,” but I did consider my Bible Study Group to be a community and I wanted to grow in my connection to that community; attending the retreat tied into my Word of the Year. I was able to attend the retreat in March and had a wonderful time deepening my connection with my friends and making new friends, too.
I also learned that I don’t have to do a lot to support a community. I was thinking about putting together a block party for the families on my street later this summer. Another neighbor beat me to it and planned a block party at the beginning of June. (And in all honesty, probably did a better job than I would have.) She scheduled a bounce house and her husband grilled some amazing food. I was so happy that she took the initiative on this. All I had to do was show up, bring a side dish, and get to know some of my neighbors better.
There are other things I’m planning to do in this second half of the year to support my communities. I plan to keep writing and sharing myself with East Idaho Moms. I want to help grow the elementary school PTO and help other parents know it’s a fun place to volunteer. I’m going to learn how to write grants for the Magic Valley Symphony. I’d like my family to take a professional-style family portrait. I’m looking into setting up in-person events for the autism support group. I’d like to invite more people over to my home for dinners.
I’ve also realized I forgot a community when I made my initial list. I forgot to include my workplace and my coworkers. I’m lucky to work with some really talented people, and I’m always looking for ways to support them. I should give myself credit for building up that work community.
It’s been good to check in with my Word of the Year. I have realized I am doing a pretty good job of living up to the intent of the word. I’m also excited about things that I can do for the rest of the year. One thing I noticed is that I’ve been very focused on the “what I can do for my community” side of the equation. I haven’t considered the “letting my community help me” side of things. I’m such a doer that thinking about ways people can help me feels kind of feels foreign. But it’s something I’d like to consider more. Maybe I’ll have an update about that later in the year.
