Each month, Jayden and I are going to journal about a different word, inspired by Marquessa Matthews. This month is Gratitude.

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Gratitude

I’m just going to try to list a couple things once a week or so. I might rewrite it into a more coherent post, or just leave it rambly.

1. Jayden
2. Swiss Army Knives
3. My new job
4. Potatoes

Each month, Richard and I are going to journal about a different word, inspired by Marquessa Matthews. This month is Gratitude.

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Gratitude

I try to start every day with gratitude. Every morning, I give thanks for all the wonderful things in my life. Even on the worst days, there are so many good things I have, and I am always grateful for them. My parents did their honest best to raise me, and I think they did a damn good job. I love them both (and the bonus parents I’ve had). I have amazing friends, whom I love dearly. I was blessed to have found a partner young and have my daughter when I was in my early 20s. I adore her more all the time, and I can’t wait to see the adult she grows into. And now I am so ever grateful for my partner in life: Richard. I didn’t understand what I was missing until I met him, and I am so thankful that he’s here with me every day, supporting me, pushing me, and loving me.

Each month, Jayden and I are going to journal about a different word, inspired by Marquessa Matthews. This month is Acceptance.

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Acceptance

I wrote a 5 page essay on accepting that my writing counts as art last month. I won’t give you the whole thing, but here’s the outline version:

1. Art=creativity+skill+effort
2. Creativity: Even the most derivative writing requires some degree of creativity. Maybe not if you’re literally transcribing, but anything even vaguely original, even if it’s instructions or ad copy or something.
3. Skill: Writing is a skill that you can practice and develop, just like drawing or painting.
4. Effort: Like creativity, writing always requires some (sometimes seemingly absurd amounts of) effort. Just tapping those little keys and putting words on the page is way more work than it feels like it should be sometimes.

So yeah, I guess I have to accept that I’m some kind of artist. Ugh.

Each month, Richard and I are going to journal about a different word, inspired by Marquessa Matthews. This month is Acceptance.

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Acceptance

I have struggled with acceptance of who I am my entire life. From my weight (too high) to my height (too short) to my kinks (too extreme) to my sexuality (too broad), I have never been able to accept myself for who I am.

I have worked hard to change that. I am blessed to have a partner (Richard) who believes in me, accepts me (and loves me) for who I am, and supports me to support myself. I don’t know how or why, but I have begun to accept myself for who I am. I have tried for a long time, but it’s clicking now, pieces falling into place. I am accepting myself as I am and changing the things about me that I don’t like (within reason, of course). How about you? Do you accept yourself as you are?

Each month, Richard and I are going to journal about a different word, inspired by Marquessa Matthews. This month is Possibilities.

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Imagine the possibilities.

I imagine possibilities a lot. I am always imagining things. What will happen next in my life, in others’ lives? What will happen in various situations around me? I’m often wrong, but the imagining is part of the fun, and it often

As we start the new year, I am imagining the possibilities. What will this year bring?

Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine. I mean, if you had asked me a year ago what 2022 would bring, I probably wouldn’t have been right. And if you had asked me at the end of 2020, I would definitely have been wrong. And yet, here I am, much happier than I was before. In the last two years, I’ve been divorced and remarried, I live in a new place, I’m going back to school… A lot has changed. And yet, some things never do. Everything can change when you are open to new possibilities. So my goal this year… to be open to new possibilities.

Marquessa Matthews had an idea to do 12 words for 2023. She’s using them sort of as journal prompts, mostly for herself, but to share a little with her readers. She’s invited everyone to join her, and I’ve decided that I’d like to. Each month, I’ll be using one of the words to prompt a blog entry, and maybe some of my personal journaling, as well.

If you’d like to join in, you should go to Marquessa’s post and check it out!

The words are:

• Possibilities
• Acceptance
• Authenticity
• Enrichment
• Change
• Gratitude
• Relinquishment
• Order
• Creativity
• Peace
• Simplicity
• Joy

It’s very free-form, so feel free to start wherever you like, but I think I’m going to start with Possibilities. We’ll see you the second and third Wednesdays of the month for mine and Richard’s posts. See you soon!