One Word Wednesday: Month 1

Reflecting on January, I initially wondered if my word — “cherished” — had made any real difference. It was an unusually challenging month, one I feel like I just barely survived. Did I make anyone feel cherished? I don’t know. Was I keenly aware of how much God cherishes me? Oh, how I’d love to say “Absolutely! Every moment of every day!” But that would be a serious alteration of truth.

I was ready to declare January a “cherished” failure when I remembered three seemingly unrelated events:

1) I started physical therapy in January. A year ago, I quit training for a marathon relay team because of severe pain in my left leg. As the months passed, the pain worsened, to the point that just sitting was excruciatingly painful. I chalked it up to aging.

But, as my father is fond of saying, “she who self-diagnoses has a fool for a patient and a fool for a doctor.” My highly-qualified physical therapist introduced me to my IT band, and then I introduced my IT band to an extra-firm foam roller…several times a day for a month!

I’m now pain-free and ready to run again!

My focus on “cherished” encouraged me to initiate self-care now…rather than waiting another unnecessary long, painful year!

2) Ever since I bought my laptop, I’ve noticed that the screen makes images look washed out. I heard that this is a common problem, I tried to re-calibrate the screen without success, so I just got used to it.

Unexpectedly, a few weeks ago I noticed that images on my screen suddenly looked normal! The harsh glare was gone, and I could see intricate shadings and details I’d not seen in the three years I’ve had this computer.

Then, last week, normalcy vanished and the old washed-out look returned. I started to resign myself to getting used to it again…but made a Genius Bar appointment instead. If my MacBook Pro screen could work correctly once, perhaps they could figure out how to make it work again!

Sure enough, my appointment lasted less than 3 minutes. One setting needed to be changed, and the seagulls in my website header became visible again, as did the ship captain’s wheel further down.

Was this a life-or-death situation? Of course not! But I feel like my focus on “cherished” motivated me to take action toward improvement rather than settling for “good enough.”

3) A woman I’ve known for about a year asked if we could get together and talk about the similar season of life we’re both in. I agreed and then spent the next few days celebrating, “She wants to be my friend! She wants to be my friend!”

I know, I know — with my history of BFF disasters, I need to be careful. She didn’t volunteer to carry all my Anxiety Girl issues; she just asked if we could get together for coffee.

But even as I take note of my own red flags, I still think my focus on “cherished” is making me more open to give and receive friendship.

So, what common thread — if any! — connects these three events?

I think it’s “yes.”

As in “Yes, I’ll call and schedule the PT appointment. Yes, I’ll do my exercises three times a day (five times if necessary!) until I feel better so that I can say ‘yes‘ to running again.”

“Yes, it’s worth the time and effort to take in my laptop to see if by any chance they say ‘yes‘ they can help me.”

“Yes, I’d like to get to know you better and offer what support I can as you’re going thru stuff I understand.”

So did I spend January actively and intentionally focusing on “cherished”?

No.

But did “cherished” focus me in January?

Without a doubt: yes!

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