Again, I asked the members of the KPC Writers Group to choose personal focus words for the year. I love this annual exercise, and I especially enjoy the variety of words and the explanations given for their choices.

Confidence
Positivity
Determined
Persistence
Pursue
Steady
Focus

I nod. Yes, definitely. Great words. I can see how all of these apply to writing.

I empathize with Finish and Completion. As writers, the ideas can flow, and we can flit from one to the other with enthusiasm. Beginning is exciting, but after that initial wave of eagerness, projects can bog down and enthusiasm dissipates. Beginning is the easy part. Finishing those stories and poems and articles … now that’s something else altogether.

“Whatever it takes to finish things, finish. You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished.” ― Neil Gaiman

“You need two things to write a great book: imagination and inclination. Without one, your book will be boring; without the other, your book won’t get finished at all.” ― Ellie Firestone

Yes, I also need to focus on finishing, on completing. Thank you, fellow writers.

Other words seem to have broader “life reaches” than writing:

Calling
Held
Faithful
Becoming
Breathe
Sing
Balance
Behold

People have depth and layers, and their reasons for choosing certain words are personal and complex. While my point in asking them to choose a focus word is always writing-related, their choice of words often reaches far beyond their goals for their writing. I admire that. I applaud that. I wish I were not so shallow.

On my dining room wall hangs an abstract art print with a quotation by Brian Andreas:

“For a long time she flew only when she thought no one else was looking.”

When I saw that print in the gift shop, I almost cried. That was me. I’d never met Brian Andreas, but he knew me.

And so, my word for this year is FLY.

My favorite dreams are of flying. (Do you ever dream you can fly? Many people haven’t.) I once dreamed I flew to a barren place of scrub brush and rock (and reminded me of taking shortcuts through the canyons in San Diego with my friends). A sign read, “This is the top of the world. Where you go from here is up to you.” How’s that for a dream with meaning? Sadly, I never seemed to go much of anywhere.

A few years ago, I jumped out of a plane (with a Navy SEAL strapped to my back), because I knew that sensation would be the closest to flying. I was right. It was magnificent. But what about flying … in metaphor … every day?

I love the idea of being “above” (expectations, circumstances) and having a bird’s-eye view (a different perspective) of life.

Flying means freedom.

Freedom to write whatever comes into my head and heart. Freedom to become who I truly am (surely, there’s still time!)

“Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out.”―Oliver Wendall Holmes

I want to play whatever music God has placed in me. Too often we are held back by fear … fear of rejection, fear of being misunderstood, fear of being laughed at, fear of being exposed as a fraud …

I want to be like the late Erma Bombeck who wrote, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would have not a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything You gave me.’”     

May this year be my first year of flying. My first year of casting off the chains of doubt, of cutting off the shackles of my own (and others’) expectations, a year of shattering the limits I’ve placed on myself.

What about you? Do you have a fear of flying … or are you with me? What is your word for the year?

“But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength;They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31