What Should be My Word for 2019?

Last year I chose a word for the year. I printed it and posted it in several places in my house where I saw it every day. My word was

FOCUS.

I know I have a big problem staying with a task until it is finished. I have been told that my house is evidence of this issue. My dining room table is covered right now with papers--papers pertaining to four or more tasks I started but have not finished. But next week, I will focus on those tasks and complete them.

I am contemplating what my word for this year should be. 
First I have to decide what I want to accomplish this year. I always have such grand plans for the next twelve months that I over-schedule myself. Then I suffer with physical pain from lack of rest and being too stimulated mentally to sleep well. I absolutely make myself sick. My sister, Gay, can attest to this. 

I know others have this same problem. Some of them are my good friends. Owning a home takes so much of our time and finances. I have been making a mental list of what has to be done to my house this spring. My deck needs repairs and painting.

My health is uppermost in my planning for the next twelve months.I will begin with physical therapy and go on to water exercises as I try to deal with fibromyalgia and other concerns that have no name. I already incorporate massage therapy and chiropractic care in my regimen. That takes way too much of my time.

Of course, my work with NCWN-West is always of the utmost importance. Soon I will be scheduling readers for Coffee with the Poets and Writers for the months of March through November 2019. NCWN West will sponsor a workshop by Valerie Nieman this summer. We will need to publicize this event with emails, articles in local papers, etc. 

We are going to hold another Day for Writers in August. Carol Taylor is co-chairing that event with me. This all day writers' conference is a time consuming project as we search for the best presenters, arrange for a caterer, and line up volunteers to help with all the details.

I want to teach a couple of workshops or six week courses on memoir writing at Writers Circle around the Table. Maybe I can teach another course for the Institute of Continuing Learning at Young Harris. I enjoy these classes, seeing my students improve their writing and hearing their unique stories.

My own writing tends to get pushed way down the list of things to do, but I hope to get a poetry book published this year, and I am working on a collection of short stories. Estelle Rice and I will continue to market our book, Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins. We have been overjoyed at the reception this book has received. But it has taken much time and work to get it out there and let people know about it.

Wow! I get tired reading all my plans for this year. I didn't even mention working on my genealogy. 

We know it takes patience, persistence and perseverance to achieve success.

Maybe perseverance should be my word for 2019. What do you think?

Definition of perseverance :
 continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering

What would you choose for your word for 2019?

A bowl of little green turtles

Below is an excerpt from an article on tricycle.com/, an interview with poet Mark Doty. He explains so knowingly how we humans persevere, even after tragedy hits and slaps us down again and again. 

Read the article, but first read this:

“I was walking on Broadway one day in SoHo and came upon an Asian woman who was sitting on the sidewalk selling, of all things, tiny green turtles. She had them contained in a big white enamel bowl, and the little things were climbing over each other trying to get out, then sliding back down into the bowl again once they made it a ways up toward the rim. They were so beautiful—brilliantly green—and seemed so absurdly fragile; how could anything that tiny make it in New York City? 

That’s how poems usually start for me: I begin with a description of some little thing that’s moved or interested me, and then, if I’m lucky, the process of writing teaches me why whatever it is matters. The turtles were such a potent image of ourselves: our incredible human persistence despite our frailty. We want to connect, to love, to move forward—we will climb up the sides of that bowl no matter what!”   

            ---poet, Mark Doty 

As poets, we want to learn and to teach what we see as important about little moments that move us. A good poem will do that.

Have you read any good poems today?