Reflecting On "Embrace"

My word for 2022 was "Embrace". You can read all about what I thought it would look like here, but I'll tell you right now, it didn't look much like that. As much as I try not to have expectations, I can't quite help it, so I just go into the new word knowing that it's not going to look like I thought :)

If you didn't read the linked post, I'll summarize. I was thinking that "Embrace" would be me focusing on embracing God again in a more personal way. I was done with the distance I felt and being angry with Him. Well... that didn't happen. I'm still fighting for that relationship and some days are harder than others, but we're working on it.

"Embrace" turned out to be much more about me embracing myself and my life. Things are not going "my way" in my life. It's not turning out how I would have written things and I've spent a lot of time being angry about that and cried a lot of tears over it. But I can't change things I have no control over so I have to figure out how to accept it and move on.

However, I don't just want to "accept" things. That sounds defeatist. It sounds like letting life happen to me. I want to get to a point where I can embrace the life I have, rather than long for the life I dreamed of. It's definitely a work in progress but realizing all of this was a good first step.

As for embracing myself... I have come to realize/learn that I am not very nice to myself. I am way more critical of myself than I am of anyone else and I don't give myself the grace that I give to others. I've done about a year of counseling now, off and on, and she helped me see this bad trait that I had and start to work on correcting it. "Embrace" is me learning to be kind to myself.

I'm definitely not done with the lessons from this word, but I am changing my focus to a new word for this year. I'm pleased with the growth and knowledge I've gained from a year of focusing on "EMBRACE" and I'm going to keep working on it as I go forward. One thing that I've realized is that my words of the year are not things that I just leave behind. I still need to remember those words and they are still things I'm working on, even as they move to the background. They are the kind of lessons that are never fully realized, I think.

How did your 2022 word go? What surprised you? What went as expected?



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My 2021 Word of the Year
My 2020 Word of the Year