Forgive Lead to the Choice of my Word for 2011

This word was not on top of my list; Forgive. But after making the spread with Heart, I guess I wanted to go further in this direction. Forgive. It is a pretty big word and holds a lot of meaning.

When I thought about it, what crossed my mind first was the question if I would be able to forgive myself for all the mistakes that I made in the past.
Especially since I ended up in a situation in my life where I really did not want to be. And I understood that I had been ignoring a lot of signs, moments and opportunities. Someone told me that I was very judgmental towards myself.

She was right. And so the subtitle for this spread came up: don't beat yourself up. Forgive yourself. You have tried with all the right intentions.

When I was working with these kind words, I felt that the word for 2011 would be Soul. Taking care of my inner feelings, taking care of my spirit, listening to my heart, allowing time to heal old wounds. Being kind to myself and forgiving myself. Soul would be the word that held all these kind of actions, feelings and intentions.

So Soul is my One Little Word for 2011.

I also felt that making spreads about these uplifting words felt good to me. So I did not stop here, I would use these inspiring words to make my art journal a kind of guide book for 2011.
No personal commandments, but soft and kind guides to remind me what I needed to do for myself in these changing times.

The spreads I made became more simpler than I ever worked. Just an inspiring image, a word, a small sentence, some journaling from the heart and a little border.

Heart

The word Reposition was just not working for me. I wanted to explore the word Heart. I am not a cool thinking person when it comes to decision making, but I did use my reason a lot in making choices. Always asking what is the best choice. Second or third is the question: what would you want? And when faced with such a question, I have a hard time making a choice. Figuring out what I really want is not that easy for me.

Would I be able to make decisions based on feelings, on what feels good in my heart? Is 2011 the year for me to try this?

Reposition

This word surfaced in my thoughts when I was making the spread with all the words I was considering. Reposition: to put in a new position; shift.
The word was nice. But just that: nice. Not something you would like to use as a guide for the next 12 months. I just wanted to start the next spread: Heart. That said a lot about Reposition, didn't it?

One Soothing Word: Heal

When I finished the spread about Soul, I was in a much kinder and softer mood. The next word I took from my list was the word "Heal".
The year 2011 could be a time to heal the wounds of 2010. There was something comforting and soft about this word that I liked.
I decided that I would work out some other words in this book before making my choice.

How about "Spirit and Soul"?

Back in December, when I was looking for that One Little Word for 2011, I decided to make a spread about the words that spoke to me the most.
This was the second spread I made: Spirit and Soul - be kind. The previous spread about Choice did not feel good. I thought it would be a good word for the new year, but somehow it felt like a 'command' instead of a soft guiding word. This one was so much softer: Soul.

Still doubting, I started working on the next spread and the next word.