As happens at some point over the last few months I lost track of my 2018 Word of the Year. While having a conversation with a friend about goal setting, and what I’d like to accomplish by a certain date I had the realization that there is a significant difference between goals and dreams. Dreams are the big ideas, that may or may not be achievable, they are the thing to work toward though. Dreams are the things that give us hope. Dreams often morph. Goals are concrete things we can do to work toward achieving our dreams. These doable actions help drive our sense of purpose along this quilting thing we do. Goals may lead us to our dreams, however they may help us develop new talents and skills that lead to redirecting our dreams.
This realization is eye-opening in one sense, and kind of a duh moment in another sense. Please know I’m not being hard on myself this is simply fascinating to me. The eye-opening part, the practical side of is going to put paper on the wall, decorate it, write “dreams” on half the sheet and “goals” on the other half to give me a visual. The dreamer in me is going to continue dreaming big.
Part of what is so fascinating is that I can see way back in my young-adult life that dreams and goals were separate things. At some point in my life they merged together in a way that I can only see as something of a gift and explains my quilting style. It’s serendipitous, free-form, unplanned, or as I called it for a while “short attention span”. This is very much exemplified in the quilt I’m working on right now. 
I’ve had some time to work on “Lenny” over the last few days. The only concrete thing I knew/know about this quilt is that there’s a tree in the center of it, it’s by a river, around sunrise/sunset. The rest of it is a bit of a surprise.
My 2018 Word of the Year is Connect, and I know my 2019 Word of the Year (to be revealed later). As part of the conversation I looked for it knowing that in some way I’d lived it. Through 2018 I can see how I’ve connected others to something, or have connected with people deeply. Some of those connection have surprised me and may lead to something unexpected down the road.
Over the last couple of weeks I made some in my brain connections for the book. So this feels a bit more concrete. And in making one of those connections plans are afoot to make it happen. Yay!! In this there is also a deeper connection with myself discovering more of who I am as a quilter, writer, friend, and wife. While these in one sense look like very different things, they are bits and pieces of me that I get to nurture, connect with and grow.
I think Connect is a word that will live with, and will live in me for a long time. While not the primary focus of 2019 or beyond it is a word that has a depth that I need to explore for a while.
Happy Stitching,
Teri
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