Dear Friends,
For a number of years now, each year has had a theme to it, or a word/phrase which I have focused on. Last year, the word which spoke to my heart was “TRUST.”
Little did I know at the time just how important that one word would be to me throughout 2017. I spoke that word over 90% of all the days in 2017. “Trust Nancy, Trust.”
I’ve been thinking about how I want to write this blog post without it coming across as a ‘poor me’ type post. I’m just going to type here and see where it takes me. My mindset for 2017 was in the tank.
2017 was a difficult year. It began in December 2016 when mom had her heart attack. (Other than slowing down more and being a bit more forgetful, she is doing well.) January, February and March were spent with me taking her to cardiac rehab three times a week as well as many doctor’s appointments.
April rolled around and I fell off an ATV and broke a couple of ribs. That threw me off for April and May.
Come June, our middle child Emily became engaged and we started up in full swing of wedding plans. Then in July, she was involved in a roll over car accident when another car coming the opposite direction turned left in front of her. God is so good as she came out of it with only 3 broken bones in her right foot. Here is the thing. I truly believe this is all God’s plan. God was saying, Emily, you are going to go through a little pain now and this will save you from much pain later on. Because after the accident, true colors were shown and in August she called the wedding off. Emily also decided she wanted to get a second college degree and get her nursing degree. This meant in July, August, September and October I was once again playing chauffeur and taking her to and from class, doctor’s appointments and physical therapy. Emily is now able to drive though walks with a limp and continues with physical therapy. We are probably looking at one more foot surgery this year.
November and December brought about holiday plans being in full swing along with my husband deciding to make a job change.
It was just a lot of things happening in 2017. Looking back, much of 2017 seems to now be a blur. I know I’ve focused on the difficult things here, as that is what really stands out in my mind, but many good things also happened. I had started the Embroidery Bee club with it opening it’s doors December 2016. That was a wonderful learning experience for me and was growth to my business. Our oldest daughter’s house sold which was a huge blessing. Hubby and I had our trip to Israel as well as a couple of local weekend trips in Michigan. Despite me speaking about the negative, life was good.
Back in November, I felt the word EASE placed on my heart. Now before fully accepting that word, I had made plans for Embroidery It and plans with moving forward with the Bee Club. I had written my goals for all areas of my life. However, the word EASE just kept swirling around in the back of my mind.
Finally with hubby’s decision to change jobs and in doing much reflection as well as family discussions, I decided to embrace the word EASE and let the Bee Club go. I cried a bit. It was like saying goodbye to a piece of me that I had nurtured and grown. At the end, there were just shy of 200 of you in the club. That, to me, was success. In all truthfulness friends, it was like running two businesses and just getting to the point where I couldn’t do it all alone. (You know I’m a one woman show here). The club was running, whether you saw it or not, I felt like I was dropping the ball on the rest of Embroidery It.
In thinking what EASE means to me, in my mind, ease doesn’t mean easy. Instead, ease means being a little gentler and kinder to myself. It means giving my cares to God and letting Him do His work in me. Ease means love. It means slowing down and seeing beauty. It means enjoying the moment, being present in the moment and giving thanks. Ease means saying no sometimes as well as the opposite in saying yes and acceptance. It means releasing; releasing the club, releasing myself from addiction to sugar and releasing excess weight, releasing myself from clutter and releasing anxiety. Ease also means love; loving myself, loving my family and loving all who are in my life – which includes you. And finally it means to do all these things with out anxiety, guilt or anger. Ease has me rewriting my goals and plans for 2018.
I can tell you having already embraced ease, I feel a sense of peace and a feeling of openness. And I know that when I allow my life to be open, it enables good things to enter. I have an anticipation of good things coming this year for myself, my family and my business. We will just have to wait and see where this year takes me. I’ll keep you posted.
If you have chosen a word or theme for the year, I’d love to hear.
Much love to you all,
Nancy
Last year the Lord placed the word PRIORITIES on my mind and little did I know what that had in store. I had rough winter and chalked it up to depression when suddenly in April I got to where I couldn’t breathe. I was admitted to the hospital and they were thinking I had a lung infection when it was discovered it was my heart and my EF on left side of my heart was only 20%. I had a stint put in, started diet of congestive heart failure and exercise program. When things were just not improving like they should I was told that I needed a pacemaker. I’m 65 female that has always done for everyone else and this was a shock. But I left it in God’s hands and came through the procedure with flying colors. Then in late Sept my husband of 40 years and I reached a place where I just couldn’t go on! So we have separated and as this point a divorce is in our future. This has not been a fast decision or an easy one but done with lots of prayer, counsel and thinking!
So the beginning of this year the Lord placed on my heart TRUST. I am trusting Him to continue to guide me to the next steps, to find a place to move (after 30 years in our family house) to help me get my sewing business going enough to help support my income and see what He has in store for me now.
Thank you so much for sharing your story Janet and I like your word, priorities. So many time I have thought myself, ‘this is not how my life was supposed to turn out.’ We never know what God has in store for us, but we can always use our daily lives for His glory. I’m sorry 2017 was a difficult year for you. Will keep you lifted in prayer for your needs and let me know if I could do a shout out on social media for you to help get more eyes on your business. Much love ~ Nancy
Thank you for you words of encouragement. My 2017 was very hectic also as I cleaned out my house to move to northern Minnesota and put it up for sale. Almost had it on the market to sell and then decided to move back to the cities. I got all moved in but not unpacked and my Mother passed away in October. In November my friend got very ill and had to have major surgery in December. He was in the hospital for 16 days — he got to come home on December 31. He is doing very well and I am looking forward to a calm 2018. I always enjoy your messages. Thank you. Norene.
Thank you Norene for sharing. 2017 was a difficult year for many of us. Please know I am so sorry for the loss of your mother. That is such a hard thing to have to go through.
Love and hugs to you,
Nancy
I am so going to give this word of the year thing a try. I hope that in praying over it, a word “pops” into my mind. Over the last four years, I have developed many health issues and now due to those issues, financial difficulties for my family. I feel like you sharing your word of the year and your story from 2017 has inspired me. So thank you for sharing. Have a great day. And thank you for all your work!
Thank you Shelley. I will tell you, that for me, I don’t necessarily pray for a word to pop into my head, it just comes to me. But praying about it never hurts! Last year, with the year of trust, I was praying about something and I just felt like God was telling me to trust in that situation. So then trust became my word. This year, for almost 2 months before I actually decided on the word ease, I felt like God was saying to me go easy on yourself Nancy, slow down. Truth be told, I was going to choose the word “consistency”. There are many things I want to be more consistent with. But every time I started thinking about that word, it just didn’t set right and the words trust and slow down, ease up kept pushing their way back into my mind.
Keeping you in prayer Shelley,
Nancy
Thank you for your life and it’s story. Amazing Grace…Is your middle name Grace?!!
You shine bright and bless so many. I’m grateful.
2017 was full of a variety of challenges for me, too. The new negatives just kept happening. I do see the consolations and resulting blessings after unpleasant things slam into us. I thank God for His presence. I don’t have one word and you’ve got me thinking. “Count it all joy” is the Word God gave me about 15 years ago. I think JOY is my word for life and maybe CALM for this year. Thank you for being here in our lives! Prayers and love, Joan
I think that I read “Nancy” means Grace. Truth, I can be such a klutz sometimes! And my middle name? It’s Lynne.
I love your words Joy and Calm. They are beautiful. Shine is my word for life.
And thank you for being in my life!
Wishing you a calm and blessed 2018.
Nancy
At the beginning of the year, I thought my word would be KIND, as I felt it was my way of helping the nation quit being so hurtful to others. But it seems my word has changed. I feel the word RELEASE has come into my life a lot. And you have used it too in relation to EASE! I’m releasing my fears, my clutter, my weight (oh please yes!). I Let Go, and Let God. And I feel this inner sense of peace and freedom. It isn’t easy, in fact it’s quite hard, but everytime I release something, or work toward it, I know this is what I need to do. And with God, all things are possible if you just ask.
Oh yes, yes, yes Carol!! I had actually considered release as my word. And I love let go and let God.
Also, I finished reading a book called “Mini Habits” by Stephen Guise. I’m using mini habits in my quest for weight loss. I’ll have to write a blog post about it one of these days.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Nancy