I have decided to join a blog challenge for this month. It’s called Reverb10 and everyday the organizers throw out a prompt and all the bloggers who join write on that subject.
This is really good for me because it’s hard to come up with content every day. Plus, I really love the challenge of posting everyday–especially in December when life tends to go holiday-haywire.
So, the prompt for today is this:
One Word
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine that it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you.
After much thought, the word of the year for me is:
Clean.
This is the year that I finally cleaned up my diet. I figured out not only what to eat, but how to eat. I got a VitaMix for my birthday last January. I went on Alejandro Junger’s Clean Detox for 21 days. I gave up every food that had even the slightest chance of causing inflammation in my body, then reintroduced foods slowly back and found that sugar, dairy and alcohol are things I need to eliminate completely, or at least strictly limit. (Sad but true about the alcohol because I do love my wine!)
And I not only did the Clean program once, I did it twice. Both times with great results and insight as to the effect of food on my prana.
But the word Clean characterized not only my diet, but my surroundings. This summer we got not one, but two dumpsters; had not one, but two garage sales; and took not one, but about two hundred trips to Goodwill.
We cleaned this house from stem to stern, getting rid of everything that was ugly, unnecessary, broken, unused and totally cluttering up our lives. The basement is now pristine, as is the garage, and the back garage and the computer room and all the closets and the kitchen cabinets and the drawers. There is very little, if any, clutter or non-essential or unloved stuff left in our life.
Do you know what it feels like to have order and simplicity and space wherever you look? It’s….it’s….words fail me. No words can describe it. I feel light, unencumbered, free.
The word for 2010 is definitely, CLEAN.
When I look to the future and to the possibility of sitting here in December of 2011 and trying to capture it, I hope the word will be:
el cambio which is the Spanish word for change.
I want this to be the year of change on so many fronts: in my personal life, my habits, and my environment.
Change is something I resist. As a result of how I grew up, I over-value stability and security. I am a “don’t rock the boat” kind of person. I am an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” girl. I am change-resistant even when my life is clearly getting slow and sludgy and backed-up.
The other day I wrote about inertia; about how an object in motion will stay in motion, but a stationary object needs a force to act upon it to get it moving.
That’s me. I need a prod, a poke, some cataclysm to befall me before I will break out of my samsaric ruts.
This year I want it all to be about change. I want to be brave and risk being uncomfortable. I want to be brave and risk looking stupid and fail. I want to stick my neck out even if there is a sharpened cleaver poised above it. I want to leap and trust that the net will appear.
I want to embrace el cambio, change. I want to change even for the sake of changing, and not because anything needs to be changed. Does that sound foolhardy? Good. I want to be foolhardy, too. I have played it safe for so very, very, long. My whole life, really. I want to make things happen, just to make them happen. Crazy? Maybe.
I want to think in a new ways, with a new vocabulary, with a new attitude, in a new language even. I will learn Spanish this year. I will CHANGE.
El cambio.
Inspiration Location 
I’m thinkin’ about the Clean diet for Summer or even experimenting the first week in January… but I’ve heard folks say they were famished… was it like a starvation—can’t concentrate feeling… or moreso, just getting knocked out of a routine. If its the former, I feel like I would want to set up a time I won’t be on tight deadlines or somethin’.
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I think if you can get a copy of the book, it will really motivate you! I started by saying: One week. That’s it. And then one week grew into 2, and then into 3. Even if you just do the Elimination Diet, it will be a revelation. I would definitely think that spring would be an ideal time to start when the freshest veggies are starting to appear and everything in nature is saying: renew! Get the book. It’s really cool!
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