~ by Christine Gough

On Christmas morning I did a little internal squeal when I opened up a package containing a frivolous item that had been on my wish list…a felt letter board.  A few days after the hoopla of the 25th, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were helping me cut apart the hundreds of plastic letters that came with the felt board.  I began wondering to myself what message and words I should place on that board.  Happy New Year? Dwell in Possibility (Emily Dickinson)?  People who love to eat are the best people (Julia Child)?   So many letters and quotations to choose from can often feel overwhelming to me and then I end up with a blank slate.

As 2018 begins, we enter into a time where this blank slate is before us.  For me, I begin to ask myself what message I should be placing on my own felt board.  What message should I be sharing?  Be living out?  Be guided by?  In the past I have jumped on the “one word” train and chosen a word that was my focus for the year ahead.  Oftentimes my “one word” felt overwhelming and like another must-do on the checklist.

So I am sitting with the blank felt board for awhile. My kids are putting messages on it.  Sometimes silly ones.  Sometimes a “subtle hint” to their parents.  The messages can be misspelled. Unfinished. Too wordy to fit.

Is it such a bad thing to have a blank message board, though?  To wait and just *be* in the midst of a new year?  To proceed with love and kindness.  To move with independence and creativity, even if we aren’t 100% sure of our tagline?

In 2018, it is my hope to live with an open heart.  To have my “felt board” open to post the message needed for the moment.  Maybe even to be a place to “display” the messages of others…to allow my kids to choose the intention we focus on as we move forward.