Grace

You may or may not remember that for the past two years, I've given myself the One Little Word challenge.  (Informally, that is.  I don't do the "course" thing.)  And both years I chose "kindness."  Well, it was my choice the first year, and then I wanted to continue with it, because I felt I still had some work to do.

I don't think I'm finished with that word, however, I do feel comfortable choosing another.  I mean, I am not necessarily the world's kindest person now, but I am better than I used to be, and at a minimum, I am more aware of those times I am not kind, so I can recalibrate.  I consider that to be growth, and I regularly ask myself now if I am being kind, and/or how I can be kind.  It has really made a difference to me, and to my view of the world.  I would like to think it has made a difference to those around me, but it's not like anyone has come up to me and said, "You know, Bridget, you are much kinder than you used to be," so who knows.

This year, I'm ready for a new challenge.  And so I have chosen another word:

GRACE

Not meaning, that I am going to try and be more graceful, as I'm afraid that ship sailed long ago.  No, what I want to strive to do is to live my life with more grace.  To be gracious more than I am judgemental.  To treat others with grace and kindness.  And most importantly, to remember this:

"I will hold myself to a standard of grace not perfection."

I came across that concept here.  And what it means is that perfect should never get in the way of good.  I tend to be obsessed with trying to do everything perfectly, to be a perfectionist.  In my recent adult life, I've become better at letting perfection go more than before, but I still have a lot of work to do. One of my personal goals related to this is to live my life with more grace/graciousness, in the hope that grace will work along with kindness.  I have a tendency to make things so much more complicated than they would ever need to be.  I get caught up in that, and stress myself out all of the time, and really I should remember how great my life is and can be.  I would love it if grace could be my inspiration and my result.

This will be truly challenging for me.  But I truly feel it's worth it.  And worth the effort to try.