This is my second year participating in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word workshop. My word is “clear.” I got behind on my prompts from August-October with the chaos of moving, so I’m jumping back in with a prompt every 1-2 weeks to finish up the year. All of my OLW posts are here.
Wow! I managed to get caught up with my One Little Word album and only have the December prompt left to go, which I’ll be tackling later this week. Go me!
The October prompt focused on song lyrics. I don’t actually listen to much music these days, since I’m usually listening to podcasts instead. But I went with it and pulled 6 bits in fairly random fashion — just lines that felt like they fit with where I am right now. When I printed them out on my cards and started playing with the layout, I realized that the 6 lines — from totally different songs by totally different artists — flowed into each other almost like a loose storyline of this phase of my life. I might be reading too much into that, but hey, it’s what my brain noticed.
The November prompt was similar to one from last year, focused on what I know, learned, love and believe. I decided to make two cards for each prompt but instead of writing two separate things, I just flowed from one onto the next. (Ali has been doing these prompts in a different sized album this year, so I’ve often had to come up with a different way of massaging the prompts to fit my 8.5×11 sheets.) My thoughts while working on these cards were centered on acknowledging that my struggle with the balance of parenting vs. marriage vs. career vs. my independent interests is simply something that is and will continue to be, rather than something that should be “fixed.” I’m also feeling more positive about life in general after what was a rough fall for me.
Doing so many prompts in quick succession has had some negatives, but one positive is that they’ve made me feel reinvigorated by the OLW concept in general and excited for 2017. I think I’ve got my word — or rather, my word has found me. I’ve been turning it over in my head for a couple weeks now. I think it will be something I can connect with better than I did with “clear” this year.
