Connect
My DaySpring word for 2021 is CONNECT. You can call me a nerd for doing the DaySpring quiz every year, I’m fine with this level of nerdism. I like it! A lot.
Yesterday, I pondered the word for most of the day. Jotting things down as they crossed my mind. I started asking myself, “What does connect look like?” and “How can I make this a real action in my life?”
It looks like three things for me.
Hope and Revival
2020 will likely be known as the year we had to distance from one another. We learned life could, and would, go on. Big thanks to technology, grocery delivery, and carry out adult beverages. {Thank you, Jesus, for margaritas.} It was hard, nonetheless. God created us to socialize (yes, even the introverts sometimes). While we found ways to do this despite our physical separation, it wasn’t quite the same as a hug or a high-five in person. Not quite the same as “the before”.
Science has provided a vaccine and I think this is the “light at the end of the tunnel” that we’ve all been waiting for. I sure was. This is the hope and motivation to keep crawling toward the light. The hope of an “after”.
So, I will continue to connect with my immediate family at home, my extended family and friends online, and with my coworkers and clients in virtual meetings. Now, I do this with a feeling of REVIVAL in the HOPE those connections will be in the same physical space soon.
Authentic Presence
Being present in the present has been hard for me for a very long time. Particularly in the last five-ish years as I taught myself to escape from reality with social media scrolling or a lame tv show. I often multi-task projects, activities, even conversations. {Who else is guilty of talking to the person in front of you as you text someone far away?} I have let this habit linger for so long that I fear I have forgotten how to connect with others.
This year’s word in print has reminded me to stop double booking, multi-tasking, and rushing others away so I can get back to my activities. It has reminded me to put down my phone and turn off the lame tv when my husband, or kids, or a friend ask for my attention. They deserve it.
Like an athlete who trains their body with muscle memory, I need to retrain my brain. It won’t be easy, but it will be possible. You should know I had to pause writing this at least 4 times for a laundry-folding preteen, red-crayon searching 4-year-old, and a sick puppy. I paused. I close my journal, left my phone at the desk as I walked away and I connected, authentically. They needed me, they desired my attention, and I need them. You know what, the page stayed as is when I paused waiting for my return. The page didn’t get upset that I asked it to wait.
Growth
I know that 2020 super-sucked for a lot of people. I know there were big challenges, deep losses, and frustration all around. There were some significant changes in my life this year too, but they didn’t suck. I am so thankful that my husband and I had flexible jobs during this last year and a steady income that provided financially for us and also mentally the stability we needed.
God strategically placed a new career opportunity in my path and after some prayer – I took it. We knew it would be a big change to have me in an office everyday after 11+ years working from home. {I know, what a year to make this change!} My husband transitioned temporarily to remote work, which was such a blessing making this transition for our kids so much easier. All in His timing.
This is the role in my field that I prayed for, without even knowing it existed. It plays to my strengths, sure, but it is a whole new world for me and I am learning lots. I’m growing professionally, just as our whole family has grown personally this last year.
2020 made us all slow down, stay home, be still. While it couldn’t make us listen, it did provide ample opportunity for it. We learned to function in new ways and I’m ready to push and connect in new ways in 2021!
