On Your Mark...Get Set...

I started 2010 with a plan. My theme color was orange, and my motto was Do The Next Thing inspired by Elisabeth Elliot’s poem of the same name.  

It was great.

However, as 2010 wound to a close, I found myself with neither color nor theme nor inspiration for the coming year. I have decided that being without inspiration is just about one of the worst places to be. 

What to do...

I considered all options on the color wheel. Since pink is my official favorite color, it seemed a logical choice. I even auditioned several shades of pink to shake things up a bit. I tried out magenta. I tossed around fuchsia. (It’s probably no surprise that I tend to gravitate toward the hot shades.)  My daughters thought that I had settled on raspberry and were surprised on New Year’s Day when I revealed that it, too, had been tossed in the reject pile.

I gave myself a deadline of January 5^th to work this color theme out because I’m odd like that.

And then yesterday morning,  it just sort of hit me. And folks, when you know… you just know.  I could hardly wait to wake the girls and tell them.  I’m sure they could hardly sleep for the want of knowing.

My theme color this year is green.

Not sage or emerald or mint.

Just simply green.

I chose it because

green means GO.  

See, I’m a lousy gardener with a legendary brown thumb, but even I know that you stunt growth when you refuse to pull up weeds, thin out plants, and lop off the dead heads.

I have a lot of dead heads around here, 

and they need to go. 

In this post, I set a deadline of December 18^th 2011 to use or lose some inventory lying dormant in my nooks and crannies.  I’ll yak about plans and progress at a later time, but for now, I’ll just say that after a full year, I’m finally ready for some of it to just go.

As in

Out. The. Door.

Some intangibles need to go as well. You see, the husband and I are the ultimate Cling Ons. We cling to toxic situations and even relationships long past their expiration dates. With very little encouragement, we can even deceive ourselves into calling it being “steadfast”.

As if…

We gnaw away like dogs on bones, often getting so consumed with our gnarling that we ignore the Hand that’s trying to feed us.

Did you ever stop to think that maybe God won’t fix what’s broken because He really just wants us to let go?  

If I’m reluctant to step away, I’m downright remedial when it comes to stepping out. Oh, I’m a well documented adventure seeker.  It’s just that those adventures never step too far out of the box or off the beaten path.

‘Cause I’m a scaredy cat, you know…

So this year, I will go.

Of course, the fact that I have no clue where it is I’m supposed to be going is a bit of a problem, but work with me here. I only know that I am determined to step out of my comfort zone to try that which is uncomfortable or even a little scary.

Maybe even carrots.  

And once I do, I hope see some new growth around here which, coincidentally, is also represented by the color green.  

See how it all ties in together? 

2011...
The year of green.


Go Debbie...
Go Debbie...
Go Debbie...