Finding One Little Word, How About 'Choice'?

As you can read in previous posts, I was in search of one word to use in 2011 as a guide. Instead of making resolutions, or goals for the new year, I prefer to choose one word and have that in my daily life to remind me.
The first word I came up with was 'Choice'.

Somebody said to me that I should choose and commit to the choice. I am a very intuitive person and I like to go with the flow, wherever it takes me. That is a good thing, but I am open way too much for new things to happen and change directions halfway. And in the end it leads to confusion or sometimes even nowhere...
In my art journal I made this spread about 'Choice' to ponder about it. I did not decide anything yet (!) and wanted to make more spreads about other words that inspired me.

I'll show you one in the next post.

The Search for that One Little Word

To clear the mind, you have to let it flow freely. So the next step for me was to write the words down that came up in my mind.
On this spread, I wrote them, printed them, stamped them.

Every word that I came up with, seemed to be a good word. Something that I could use in this new year, in this new life of mine.
Oh boy, there are way too many words. And I keep finding new ones. I needed a way to make the selection easier!
I wanted to 'work' with a word. Make at least one simple spread and see what was happening while I worked at the spread.
Time to experiment, play and feel. I always like to find a reason to mess around with paint and glue, images and letters.

Another New Word

Back in December, I was aware that the new year was approaching soon. I had to find another new word for 2011 that would guide me throughout 2011.

Since the word for 2010 had turned out to be so powerful, I decided that I should take great care in finding a new word that would guide me through 2011.
I took my art journal and started this spread, which turned out to be a big question mark.  Decision making is definitly not my greatest asset. Working out my feelings on paper in paint, markers and pencils helps at least organise my thoughts and make them real.

This spread is simply about the search for that one Little Word.

One Little Word for One Year

Instead of making resolutions for a the new year of 2010, I started with just one little word. Just one word that would be with me during the year and that would be my intention, my guide, my direction..


The word I had chosen for 2010 was CHANGE. This was something I desperately needed. My life was completely stuck and I noticed that with the New Year 2010, I stood at the same place in life as in 2009, which was almost the same as 2008. Can't remember how 2007 was, but it must have been pretty much the same as well.
So CHANGE seemed to be the right word for me in 2010.

And it was.

That little word changed my life in a way that I could never have expected. It did not happen in an easy way, absolutely not. It happened the tough way.
My marriage of over more than a quarter of a century - yeah, that long - dissolved in a divorce. Hard, but it was the only solution to end years of a very unhappy life. There were just no repairs possible any other way, I tried. I tried for too long..
Along with that, my weight dropped 3 dress sizes as well - which was a very welcome change! And for the very first time in my life, I started to live on my own.

These were the most apparent changes. But underneath the surface, more subtle changes happened, just because I allowed them to happen.

It has not been an easy year. I could honestly say that this was the hardest year of my life. But my life turned around when I opened myself up for change.

The power of one little word.

And now with 2011, it is about time that I find another word for the year to think about, meditate upon and dream about.I started thinking about it some weeks ago. There were several words that came to me and which appealed to me in different ways.

Since I felt that the influence of CHANGE was pretty strong in 2011, I feel that I need to be careful in my selection of the word for 2011. And the best way for me to ponder about things and work through them, is expressing them in an art journal. So I took out an empty sketchbook and started this first spread, a looking back at 2010.

One little word.

Just a Pretty Picture!

Just a pretty picture of a tulip, way past it's date, but still looking good.