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.