This is my first year participating in the One Word Challenge, well officially anyway.  In 2008, I determined that 2009 would be my year to shine.  In 2009 I met and fell in love with my now husband, Ryp Walters, and have been shining ever since.  Being shiny is not always how it appears though.  Being profoundly creative and successful at the same time causes a lot of awkward discussions with friends and family.  It is as if the two simply shouldn’t go hand in hand.  I have had a tough time accepting my gift and allowing it to be amazing…to sparkle and shine without playing it down and undermining my own dreams as if my talents are overrated or something crazy like that.   And so it goes….my word for 2015 just happened to me.  It actually happened weeks ago.  I read this and it landed deep inside me. “Grace is the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not because of anything we have done to earn it.”  I am loved.  All of the time.  God has mercy on me and everyone in my life, regardless of how we handle things as they happen.

This matters because last year was filled with so much change.  I moved across the country into all new situations.  In the midst of it all, two of my friends that I depended on and loved broke up with me without explanation.  My heart broke times two.  I felt like I had done something terribly wrong but didn’t know what it was.  I did not handle it well inside myself.  I allowed it to consume my thoughts.  I cried.  I hurt.  I made myself wrong.  I truly felt for a time as if I might be unloveable.  I need to heal from this and from so much of the changes in my life over the past years.  I want to do it with grace, knowing that whatever was communicated wasn’t really ever about me anyway.  It was about them and about their own feelings and fears.  I want to do it with love and mercy.

That means that when others in my life (friends, family, fellow bloggers, fellow artists/designers) say or do things that I used to allow to hurt my feelings by taking deeply personally, I now will have a tool to accept their words with grace and know in my soul that I am still loved for being me…just as I am.  I can learn from these times and grow, gracefully without unnecessary hurt, anger or frustration.

My life circumstances present challenges, just like everyone who reads this.  I have the choice to respond gracefully to things which to me means to respond with love and mercy.  The dictionary shares examples of the word grace.  I love them.  I love number one.  Maybe in 2015 I will stop bumping into things, knocking things over and being so clumsy.

1. She walked across the stage with effortless grace.
2. She handles her problems with grace and dignity.
3. He has shown remarkable grace during this crisis.
4. She is quite lovable despite her lack of social graces.
5. Let us give thanks for God’s grace.
6. By the grace of God, no one was seriously hurt.
7. She tried to live her life in God’s grace.

And number 7.  That is my plan.  I plan to live 2015 in God’s grace.

I am finding that Grace is all around me.  The new American Girl of the Year is named Grace.  We already have her and will be creating awesomeness for Doll Diaries this year as their crafty project experts.

Grace was under my Christmas tree this year from my husband.  I love that he supports me in so many fantastic ways.

And I am decorating with Grace, including these wooden blocks in my baking shelves.

I painted ceramic stars and fired them in the kiln to create this garland for our MBR fireplace.  I ended the garland with Grace.  It will be one the first things I see when I awaken and the last when I go to sleep.

And so the new year begins!

With Grace,

Laura