I'm Back, A Change of Focus, and a Word for 2022

     I'm going to try this writing thing again.  Obviously, a lot has happened in three years. To me, to my family and to the world.  I've been writing, but it has been private reflection.  You will probably see some of that, but not all.  To recap in a nutshell: we moved back to Texas, culture shock set in, the world went crazy and I began to seriously look at the prejudice and separations that set up my childhood, continued to experience culture shock, COVID-19 hit, Rod lost his dad (not to COVID), we bought a house and decided to put our roots in Texas, I lost my Dad/Hero/Best Friend to COVID, I lost my brother to COVID, I totally untethered from plans, I wrote for my sanity and now I think I'm ready to re-connect with the world.  We'll see how long it lasts.  But for the two of you who still check in, I'm here.

    My focus of the blog has always been faith, homeschooling, memory recording and hobbies.  Faith will continue to be the focus, but you will see more of how my faith questions culture, and experience, and expectation.  I'll probably write more about justice, entitlement, and discomfort. I'm just giving you fair warning. I am not the same person who stepped away from the blog in 2018. World circumstances and a lot of time with God have changed me. So I may not hold as many ideas back in the coming days.

    As you may remember, I always have a word for the year.  In 2018 I was working through the idea of being on the Outskirts and reaching those on the outskirts and reflecting on Job 26:14. My word for 2019 was Hope as we continued to wait on God for a job and a place to settle.  In 2020 I started the year with FOCUS since Gemma was to graduate and I didn't want to miss the little things of her ending "childhood" as she became an adult.  I took 2021 off from having a word for the year. Last year was about survival and grief; introspection and asking hard questions and looking past actions directly in the face in light of racism and judgmental attitudes. It was hard and exhausting. So, to be honest, I wasn't sure I even wanted to find a focus word for 2022. But, as so often happens, things began to point me in a general direction.

    One thing I did in 2020 was add plants to my house and I planted a garden. The houseplants survive--the garden did not. In fact, it was a spectacular failure. But it did not deter my dream to grow things. So, I began to think about cultivation as a word, but it was not quite right. In my world reading I picked up the book Where the Wind Leads: A Refugee Family's Miraculous Story of Loss, Rescue and Redemption by Vinh Chung with Tim Downs. In that book, the author spoke of the Vietnamese expression Mất Gấc or "to lose root." The idea, as an immigrant, one loses root as they forget where they came from as they adapt to a new country and culture.  So language, tradition, and cultural clues which root us to our heritage can be lost in transition. Although no longer an immigrant, the idea resonated with me. The last four years have been hard to regain American roots, hold onto European roots that had become so much a part of us, and remember how all of those roots come together in me and my family. Then, in losing my Dad and then my brother this past year, the physical family roots were also severed. I have felt untethered. Just as we were buying a home to put down roots, it felt like everything was pulled up.  So to the germinating 😉 idea of cultivation, I added the idea of roots.

    I still did not have my word for 2022, just an idea. Every couple of years I seriously revisit the Proverbs 31 Woman to see which of her seasons of life I'm aligning with (I don't think this description of her is at one moment but over the course of a lifetime.) In that review, I "found" Proverbs 31:16:

"She considers a field and buys it; With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard."

Maybe this is what I was seeking.  As I began to solidify "plant" as my word, someone posted this quote from wordables.com on their Instagram:

"May the tears you cried in 2021 water the seed you're planting in 2022."

And then I was certain. My word for 2022 is:

PLANT

So in 2022, I am going to PLANT:

• The Word of God in my heart with intentional Bible Study and Scripture Memory
• The Word of God in Women's hearts as I teach and lead
• Stronger Family Roots as I redefine family traditions, record family history, and tell the stories
• Family Memories as we make the most of the next few months before family dynamics are redefined
• Trust and Freedom as we release two of our children to the world this Autumn
• Seeds of Change in myself and others as I tackle the difficult -ism conversations and stay true to what God is teaching me
• Actual vegetable seeds as we try to garden, part 2.

I'm excited about what God will do in 2022.  Thank you for joining me on this journey.  What's your focus/dream/goal for this year?

 

photo credit: apples @ morguefile.com