In 2017 my word for the year was embrace.
And as it has been a long time since my January post, I remind you again of the definition of embrace:
Embrace: to take and clasp in the arms; to clasp as in affection, greeting; to accept willingly or eagerly; to take up a new idea, faith etc., adopt; to comprise or include as an integral part; to encircle or enclose (from Old French a pair of arms)
It has definitely been the year of new ideas, and grasping onto life.
And I have found that the more I embraced my life this year, (the good and the bad of it), the more life has embraced me back.
I have embraced the sacred and challenging role of parenting. Finding myself in times of lack and frustration, that have led to reaching out and finding support (and answers) in the most amazing places.
I have embraced sorrow with the passing of my grandmother, and in that embraced my heritage as her granddaughter. I am the granddaughter of a strong, faithful woman of God.
I have embraced friendships, walking with others in their pain, finding when my way was dark that they in their turn walked with me.
I have embraced my calling to be a writer and stepped into that more and more. Diligently working throughout the year to get my manuscript finished for my first ever writers’ conference. Finding that hard work rewarded with a publishing contract for my book.
And now I am embracing a new season, a season that marks the end of blogging under ‘Only Halfway There’ and blogging under my own name as a writer.
I have found that by embracing my life, in all its ups and downs, there is an abundance of life to live. I feel that this verse from the bible puts it best.
I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!*
Thank you 2017, you were a year of challenge and hardship, a year of victory and celebration.
Thank you for embracing me, just as I embraced you.
Jodie
*2 Corinthians 6:11-13 MSG