Just One Thing…

This is my sixth year in Scribbles Lives. It is a closed, online group of calligraphers who prepare a weekly piece which is inspired by a prompt from a member of the group. Whew! That sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. In essence, each week we get a prompt and have three weeks to create an original work of art in accordance with the guidelines of the prompt. This week’s prompt was the phrase we are all in this together. I wanted to do something different, maybe flip the phrase on its ear…so the first five words are written in order, the last word is written in reverse. Hidden within the piece are tiny messages (written with a copic .005 pen) to encourage us all as we begin this journey.

A new year, new commitments, new people to get to know AND leftover to do items from 2023 that are still nipping at our heels. Here we are in the middle of the first month and, if you are like a lot of us, gathering our gumption to move forward with our heads held high. A new year brings hope and opportunity that is all too often wrapped inside ideas, time constraints and emotional leftovers from years gone by. Whew! That can feel like a lot, and often that overwhelming, overpowered sensation kicks our hope right into the corner.

What if we look at things a little differently this year? Instead of taking on the world, what if we just did one thing? One thing each day to move ourselves forward. I know, that to do list would be impossible if we only did one thing, there is too much to do. Right?!? Okay, that’s true…sort of. Life goes one, laundry piles up, dishes need to be washed, bills need to be paid. What if the one thing was THE to do item that would make you feel like you accomplished something that day, not just did chores?

Let me give you a few examples: Writing a friend that letter you have wanted to write. Cleaning out your sock drawer. Clearing out the expired food from one cabinet in the kitchen. Cleaning up your desk. Doing a brain dump of all your nagging to do items so you can check off the list one task at a time. Or, maybe even, take a nap. Wipe down the bathroom counters. Send off your resume for a new job. Get it? One thing, simple or not, that takes you one step further forward and makes you feel like you accomplished something other than the drudge of the day to day.

Life is complicated. It gets messy fast, which overpowers our minds and leaves us flat on the emotional floor mumbling and wanting to quit…maybe even before we really got started. Let me encourage you to allow one thing to be enough. Just one thing you can do today – maybe actually make your bed – to make you feel better, accomplished, important. It’s not rocket science, it’s navigating your life which is WAYYYY harder than sending a rocket into space. And it can feel that way, especially as you face a brand new year. So give it a go, just one thing…

Just one thing…for me it is getting back to this blog. Which meant sitting down, being quiet and daring to believe that I still have something to share that will make your day better. So do that thing today….just one thing. And let that be enough. Do your one thing and then…and then, tomorrow you can do just one thing. Before you know it things will get done and you will have done them all, one thing at a time.

You can do it….just one thing!