Do You Choose A Word of The Year? 2023 Thoughts

Want to know what my word of the year is? Here is a peak behind the curtain into my season of quiet reflection and how it might help you too.

Do you chose a word for the year to guide you?

I don’t always.

I have in the past.

But, I don’t feel a deep need to have to have one.

There are years when I haven’t chosen a word – and things worked out ok. 🙂

It’s one of those things that I am happy to open the gate to the idea of, but I don’t box myself into having to have a word for the year.

As you already know from this post last week, I’ve been ushering in my fresh start season I refer to as “getting down & getting low.”

If you aren’t sure what I am referring to…and you are feeling a little overwhelmed with the beginning of the new year…you might enjoy reading this post, all about how I purposefully created and named this get down, get low season for myself and how this practice helps to create spaces for quiet, especially during a noisy New Year.

In short?

This season of quiet reflection purposefully allows for the opportunity to pause…before plowing forward.

Also?

It’s a deliberate time laced with actions, directed towards re-acknowledging my dependence on God.

The result?

This quiet season and practices sharpens my spiritual hearing so that I can more confidently follow my gut instincts, knowing what needs to be tuned out and what needs to be tuned into more.

Because?

What I find over and over again is…

Most of our questions and soulful cries for clarity can be answered…in time, by spending time discussing them with our Holy God, on our knees, alone and in the quiet spaces.

All that to say?

I did not have a shiny word of the year all picked out and ready to write on the top of a brand new 2023 journal on New Year’s Day.

(Heck, I don’t even have a new journal yet this year, I’m still using last year’s…maybe that’s because it’s not about starting over for me…it’s about starting fresh.)

Nope.

I didn’t even expect to pick a word of the year, least of all pressure myself to provide a word to guide me.

Until?

Until one was placed on my heart.

Planted inside my heart as if it had always been there, waiting for me to see it, to hear it and to receive it…for just this moment and right now year of 2023.

Yes, in the season of quiet a word has bubbled up to the surface…and it makes so much sense.

Do you want to know what my word of the year is along with a few other deeper thoughts I have been reflecting on?

(Plus what didn’t work well last year? Make sure you read to the very end of the post for that.)

I already shared what exciting and wonderful things DID work well in 2022 HERE in last week’s post.

And today, I am sharing my word of the year, a story, along with some inward thoughts of reflection from the last few years and how they all play into the year ahead.

Are you ready?

Follow me friend.

Do You Choose A Word of The Year?

2023 Thoughts & More

I am excited to share with you my word of the year…(and my unexpected choosing of a word) as well as my thoughts and focus for 2023.

But first, let me back up just for a moment.

I pass this field, during my “mental health jog” that I take every few days in the morning, after I see all three of our daughters off to school.

If this picture seems rather boring and doesn’t rock your world…

Don’t worry.

You’re right.

It’s nothing special.

On the surface…it is boring.

But you see, what happens every time I jog past this empty field, I am transported back in time to March 2020.

Yep, that March.

The March when the world stopped spinning, as we knew it.

And just before the world changed forever?

I had hit publish on my very first blog post, “Uncertain Not Unassigned” – linked HERE, on Friday, March 7th, 2020.

Yes, I had started and launched this blog, literally 7 days before the Covid crash.

And yet?

In the midst of all that instability, chaos, fear, uncertainty and unknown?

My girls and I?

We found seeds of peace planted in this same field on a sunny Friday morning, in the Spring of 2020.

In this open field, we let God love on us during a time when we were scared.

Yes, picking lion daisies as we call them in our family, helped us to “stop watering weeds of worry and start picking promises of truth” on that day.

Side note: You can read why we call dandelions, liondaisies and more of my words from this time in our world, written on this exact lion daisy picking day, right HERE in this post, called “Soul Endurance in A Mental Marathon.”

In a nut shell?

Every time I jog past this same exact, empty field all by myself…

I am transported back in time, to a day when 3 little girls and their Momma picked peace over worry.

And so?

As I have invited quiet over the last week and a half, during the beginning of this brand new year…there is a word that has bubbled up to the surface.

A word that makes so much sense to me now…after having spent the last 2.5 years planting new seeds along this uncertain and new blogging path and home decor consulting journey.

The word is Nurture.

Yes.

My word for 2023…the one I didn’t even plan to pick, but it picked me…is Nurture.

You see, rewind back to that sunny lion daisy picking day…I had written a whopping total of TWO blog posts before that sunny day in the field with my daughters, trying to make sense of a world turned upside down.

Yes this “Soul endurance in a mental marathon” blog post was the 3rd blog post I had ever written…ever!

I had literally no clue as to what I was doing as a blogger and on top of that…I had no idea what I was doing as a mother holding on for dear life in a newly lit world on fire pandemic.

Looking back now, I am sure you also can relate to some similar early Spring 2020 rollercoaster of emotions!

And yet?

God was faithful.

Even better?

He still is.

And when I jog past that field?

I remember to mentally pick His promises of truth.

I recently heard this quote on the You Version Bible App:

“Grace is how God gives us His life and Nurture is how we can give God’s grace of life to one another.”

Dear friend, I want to be a nurturer of grace in your life by way of the words on this blog and in other online spaces. (more on that coming).

Right now, I feel that I am being called to nurture the roots of the existing things (seeds) I have planted over these last almost 3 years, since making some big life decisions of career changes and also tweak some things along the way.

Between launching this blog in March 2020 and sharing weekly content ranging from home decor inspiration to encouragement to launching my Home with Heather Styling & Staging consultation business in March 2021…

The last few years have been primarily spent planting seeds in what looked like an empty field…

I love this scene and quote from one of one our family’s all time favorite movies, called Facing the Giants.

Here is the quote that I find myself coming back to:

“Grant, I heard a story about two farmers who desperately needed rain. And both of them prayed for rain, but only one of them went out and prepared his fields to receive it...Which one do you think trusted God to send the rain?”

Well, the one prepared his fields for it.

“Which one are you?” Mr. Bridges continued.

“God will send the rain when He’s ready. You need to prepare your field to receive it.”

(If you haven’t seen this movie yet, watch it this weekend with your family – you won’t regret it.)

And so?

When I run past that empty field and reflect on that lion daisy day…a day so close to the beginning days of whenI felt “Uncertain not Unassigned” – when I decided to prepare and plant this baby blog seed…

Two things happen to me…

I am reminded…

of the faithfulness of how God brought us through such a difficult and uncertain time.

And?

I am encouraged…

to prepare my field for rain and trust that God will send the rain.

So what does this mean in your life?

It means that in a noisy new year, we can get quiet (here’s how) and we can trust the process, while putting in the practices to prepare our fields for rain.

Because God is the same today as He was yesterday, as He was in March 2020.

Faithful.

I get it friend.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what the next right thing or next small move is.

Maybe this will help you.

Just today, during my mental health jog, I stopped on this bridge for a moment in order to toggle to a different podcast.

And when I took my ear bud out, that was booming with an advertisement commercial?

I heard something new.

Something that I wasn’t tuned into at first...

but when I took the noise of the ear bud out?

I could hear the new sound.

The sound of a stream.

Finding it’s way.

Over the rocks.

Around the leaves.

Under the bridge.

Moving forward.

The sound of the stream is always there.

I just don’t always hear it.

Because I’m not always listening for it.

I recently heard this on a podcast episode:

“If we don’t go within…we will go without.”

I am convinced friend.

Convinced that taking time to go within is critical in order to find our focus and hear The Whisper of what the next small move is.

Because?

Doing the things we need to do in order to get quiet…will allow us to hear the “new sounds” of your stream…that may have been there for a bit…but we just might not be tuned into them, with all the other noise intake.

And so?

Nurture is my 2023 word of the year.

Nurturing to me…looks like – tending.

And?

Preparing my field for rain.

So far, nurturing in 2023 means:

Tending to the seeds I have already planted, by receiving God’s grace and nurturing what I have been entrusted with.

Tending may also include pruning.

I am not 100% certain what and how much to prune…yet.

But, I do think pruning back in some areas will be necessary, so that other areas have the opportunity to flourish and grow more.

I am still seeking clarity on where to prune and where to till in this field I am planting.

But I know, in this get down, get low season of inviting quiet.

In time, clarity will come.

Oh!

The thing that didn’t work in 2022?

Not sharing my home decor content in more online spaces!

Which means?

I am getting a little more strategic in my sharing of home decor inspiration and furniture links etc!

I am laughing as I am typing this!

Why?

Because I am the poster girl for the business strategy that is called:

Winging it!! 🙂

All kidding aside though…

What didn’t work last year was only sharing my creative and home decorating content to this blog space.

After adding nearly 3 years of content, sometimes this blog can be a little clunky when you are trying to search and find links to furniture and decor I share.

And so?

I am doing TWO things:

I am now sharing my home decor sources & pictures for easy key word shopping and links on the LTK app!

You might have already heard me say HERE in my Instagram Stories, that I am now sharing my home decor content, sources and links for shopping my decor recommendations on the LTK app.

What is LTK?

We will get into that on Saturday’s post!

I am going to explain more about LTK and the benefits of using this app to shop, in my next blog post coming out on Saturday morning.

So stay tuned!

But in short…you can start following me HERE on the LTK app now, so that you can familiarize yourself and how easy it is to see the different rooms of our homes and shop the sources to my home decor.

We will get into why this app is so user friendly and all of the benefits in the next blog post!

The second thing?

I am considering starting a Home with Heather Facebook group for our community!

A free facebook group for you to connect with each other and for me to share a more “behind the scenes” look into life and decorating my home and sharing decor sources and links.

Is this something you would like to be a part of?!

Tell me in the comments below – PLEASE!

I am not 100% certain if I am going to create this group, as it will be time consuming, so your feedback really matters!

And friend?

I am always aware of the many options you have out there, to choose from to listen and read words from, so the fact that you continue to come back here and choose me is an honor.

Any creative work I put into the world is an offering, whether written or decorated…so the simple fact that you are willing to receive it…is a blessing.

You are a blessing to me.

Living on a prayer,

Heather

Need more?

Here is a post, I wrote last year, during this time of year that might help too. XO

What You Need To Know About Starting Fresh When You’re Feeling Flat