Reverb 10: Day 1

Oh, dear god. What did I sign up for?

For those of you who don’t already know about Reverb 10, you can check it out here: http://www.reverb10.com/. I’m not great at getting myself to write everyday, but here’s hoping that this will help! So far, I’ve stumbled across some great blogs on Reverb 10 and they’ve inspired me to get writing. This particular challenge will be good for me — I feel self conscious with my writing sometimes and don’t allow myself to always hit publish. With Reverb 10 you only get a writing prompt the day of and are expected to write a post that day. I think the short time frame will make me hit publish, even if it’s not my best.

So, here goes nothing!

December 1 One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
(Author: Gwen Bell)

Frankly, there are a lot of words to describe 2010 but I am going to go with Peace. Is it 100% accurate? Probably not, but tonight, that’s as close as I’m going to get. With the year coming to a close, I really do feel at peace. The peace extends to many areas of my life: family, friends, work and life in general. However, if I’d written this a year ago peace would probably not be the word I had used. A year ago, life was just starting to spark back after the recession (I work in financial services, as does my mom), a family member was ill, and while I had a job it was not one I enjoyed. Yet, I was so ready to close the door on 2009.

I made a sort of New Year’s Resolution, one that many of my friends have held me to: No more allowing the phrase, “It is what it is” to happen. Instead, I was going to make things happen. For the most part, I did make things happen.

I have a new job, one that I really enjoy, which allows me to be creative and fulfilled. My family is mostly happy and healthy and that brings me a lot of peace. Granted my difficulties within the last few years are nothing compared to what others have faced. But they are my struggles and I’ve learned from them. There are many things I didn’t handle with much grace over the past few years and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that you’ve got to hold your head high and sometimes you’ve got to tread water — many times treading for longer than you ever thought possible.

So for me, 2010 was the end of treading water and finally landing on shore, taking some much needed big breaths.

Peace. I’ve found it for now. I’ve learned to hold it and keep peace even when things become too much to handle. 2011 looks pretty promising. There are lots of countries to explore, books to read, classes to take, people to meet, and fun to be had.

Thanks, 2010, for teaching me that there is peace even among chaos.

Advertisement