One Little Word | February + Blog Hop

Welcome back, fellow OLW blog hoppers! :)

"Faith" in February.

I knew when I started this journey at the beginning of January that it would lead to me to some unexpected places. And that was for sure the case in February! I've been waiting for my word to "speak" to me, to "surprise" me, as people are saying, and in all honesty I was getting a little frustrated and impatient. I just wasn't feeling it. I think I was maybe focused a bit too much on the word itself, and forgetting to keep my mind open to the mysterious ways that God works in our lives. Which is really kind of the whole point of my word (or a large part, anyway). Finally, it hit me... In February I was being called to work on my perfectionism. (For those of you who may not know, I am a certified, card-carrying, type-A perfectionist. In all areas of my life, not just scrapping.) First, while browsing the bookshelves at the library, I came across this book: Be Happy Without Being Perfect: How to Break Free from the Perfection Deception. It intrigued me, so I checked it out, read it, and liked it. Around the same time, Big Picture Classes ran a new two-week class mid-month (free, no less!) called Embracing Imperfection. Wow. What an amazing class. Reading and participating on the message boards was like therapy, really. It really awakened me to all sorts of possibilities of ways that I can re-examine my life and make some changes. Changes that are likely to bring more peace into my life (perfectionism can be very stressful). I loved the class, I got a ton out of it (I expect its impact may reverberate through my life for a very long time), and I also really liked the teacher, Karen Grundberg, and her style of teaching. So much so, in fact, that I've also signed up for her next class at BPC (that started last week), Finding Your Way. It's all about the search for authenticity in your scrapbooking style, and I'm excited to see where it will lead over the next couple of months.

A few entries in my "Acting on Faith" log this month:

February 2, 2011: Today I started reading Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. Through this book I hope to find greater understanding of and empathy for young American Muslims.


February 3, 2011: Today I finished reading Praying with Katie: God, My Cat, and Me. Definitely an interesting little book. I liked that it had a different perspective and that it made me think about my relationship with God in a different way. The difference was refreshing.

February 9, 2011: Today Embracing Imperfection started at Big Picture Classes. Just listening to the initial slide presentation, I think I have a lot of work to do!

February 17, 2011: Today as I was driving Hannah to her piano lesson, I was thinking about embracing imperfection. Suddenly I noticed the marquee at G- Christian Church: “Welcome to your journey.” Well said, Lord.

February's OLW project: photos of Faith.

Sadly, this is where I really dropped the ball. I think I let myself get dragged down by the initial disillusionment of my word this month, and then after all the self-examination got started, I just got swept away into other things. I also decided I didn't want a bunch of pictures of my literal word, as I was first thinking. So then I had to reach deeper, creatively, and try to figure out some photos to take that would be more representative in a figurative sense of what I am wanting from my word this year. And sometimes that's not so easy. I did some brainstorming though, so in lieu of photos I thought I would share my ideas with you (I know, it's not as interesting, sorry!). In the list below, the first part of each item is one component of my word; after the colon is my photo idea(s).

• Strengthen my faith, find a church home: a church
• Faith that my son William will overcome his autism (read this post if you'd like more details on that) and that God won't give me more than I can handle: William, puzzle pieces
• Faith that the world will go on post-2012: Earth (as seen from space), a 2013 calendar
• Faith in myself: me
• Faith that I am strong enough to do the things I need to do and get my life in order: free weights?
• Faith to persevere through the changes in our life: the building where my husband works? (as this mostly has to do with changes in his job environment and uncertainty in the future)
• Faith that I can overcome my clinical depression: my antidepressants
• Faith that I can overcome my (Type II) diabetes: my blood sugar testing equipment
• Faith that I can lose the weight I need to: a scale
• Faith that God is in charge of my life and through Him I can have peace: a cross?
• Having faith in others: a friend, my mother
• Faith that someone else can take care of my kids as well as me: someone else with my kids
• Faith that reaching out to others won't always end in rejection: 2 hands reaching towards each other
• Faith that I am worthy of true friendship, and allowing that to develop: a friend
• Inspiring others' faith in me: email, a telephone

It's for that last item that I actually do have a picture (taken last April as part of my Week in the Life project):

You might notice that some of the items in my list above have question marks, indicating that I am unsure. So if you have any brilliant ideas for photos I could take, please share! :)

Finally, I'd just like to mention that I have finally finished my December Daily album for 2010! I will be updating my December posts with photos and comments of my album. In the meantime, the album can be seen in its entirety at Flickr: December Daily 2010.

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Next blog in the hop: Cindy at Serious Play or start from the beginning of the blog hop with Margie at Xnomads.

This post is part of a series. Click here to see all posts relating to my One Little Word.

If you're lost in the blog hop, here's the complete list:
Margie: http://xnomads.typepad.com/
Monica: http://scraplifters.blogspot.com/
Jill: http://jillconyers.typepad.com/
Miranda: http://mirandasscrapsite.blogspot.com/
Donna: http://www.donnabryantdurand.blogspot.com/
Lynn: http://www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com/
Stacey: http://www.TheAcornGarden.com/blog
Lisa: http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog
Cassie: http://craftycassiescorner.blogspot.com/
Abbey: http://athomewiththerichardsfamily.blogspot.com/
Nicky: http://seejanebake.blogspot.com/
Holly: http://lovingrobots.blogspot.com/
Karen: http://breathenowsmile.blogspot.com/
Claudia: http://creative-moms.com/
Rebekah: http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/
Kimberly: http://foreverdaisies.blogspot.com/
Kat: http://www.katswonderings.blogspot.com/
Kristina: http://ciqis.blogspot.com/
Jan: http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com/
Nikki: http://www.inkyart.com.au/
Amanda: http://www.scrappnbee.blogspot.com/
Lisa: http://luluoz.typepad.com/
Sam: http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/
Maureen: http://cookingmylife.blogspot.com/
Kristi: http://theprojectofme.wordpress.com/
Tere: http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/
Karen: http://womenontractors.blogspot.com/
Katrina: http://k84mansramblings.blogspot.com/
Monica: http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/
Mandy: http://captureandcreate.wordpress.com/
Lisa: http://makeyourownescape.blogspot.com/
Chrissy: http://getcraftywithchrissy.blogspot.com/
Lee: http://linarstudio.typepad.com/embracelife/
Jen: http://www.byjen.com/
Sylvia: http://baxtersmom1.blogspot.com/
Christianne: http://christiannemarra.blogspot.com/
Cheri: http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/
Joy: http://www.undiscoveredjoy.blogspot.com/
Beth: http://justbebeth.wordpress.com/
Jennifer: http://www.studiojenn.blogspot.com/
Kathryn: http://www.katlodesigns.com/
Heather: http://scrappyhare.blogspot.com/  <--YOU ARE HERE
Cindy: http://seriousplay.typepad.com/
Cynthiau: http://paperpapereverywhere.blogspot.com/