A week has passed since my last post, the one that announced that a word of the year would be forthcoming. I’ve considered several words over the past several weeks, and I was this close to stealing (sharing) Connie’s word, mindfulness. Heaven knows that would be a great one for me. With all of the busyness and coming and going and distractions of life, well, you get my drift.
One day last week, as I prepared to go out for my daily walk, I couldn’t find a pair of ear buds. It was almost more than I could handle. How was I supposed to stay in motion for an hour without my music or NPR? Then my husband suggested that I just listen to the birds or cars or something. And what a novel idea! I was forced to go back to listening to the world around me and letting my mind wander. It was a splendid hour of mindfulness. Actually, I’ve tried to do that quite a bit this past year. I seldom get annoyed at the sounds of crying babies, coughing, or throat clearing in church anymore. Those are the sounds of life itself.
But back to my word. I thought of peace, both inner and outer, but that’s something I pretty much always work on. Then my husband suggested that I recycle focus, my word for 2012. But no, I discarded that idea right away, knowing that focus is something that I’m going to have to work on for the rest of my life, but with a new year, I needed a new word. After several more options, I chose my word. It’s not fancy or deep or especially inspiring. And actually, it’s a word that conveys one of my overall attitudes toward life. It’s just that this year, I’m going to use it to direct my behavior in a more focused way.
Learn. Learn is my word. I’m fascinated by all there is to learn about in this grand world and daunted by the fact that I know so little. Over the holidays, we saw Lincoln and Les Miserables, and those movies inspired me to learn more about American history, Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln, the French Revolution, and the French language. About the latter, I took French in college, but now I’m thinking of refreshing some key terms. It’s not enough to know oui, oui.
The other evening as I was pondering about half a dozen words, a scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants, one of the four standard works of the LDS church, kept coming to mind. Here it is, a verse about things that we need to understand: “Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms.” D & C 88:79
My friend Judy and I discussed “things both in heaven and in the earth” a little last week. How little I know about either realm! In 2013, however, I plan to gain some more knowledge about both. With LEARN as my word, the sky’s the limit!
mom's musings 
excellent!