Light Up a Vision for 2022

By Carol Woolum Roberts

As I look ahead to the year 2022, I want to be hopeful.  I want it to be a good year.  I want it to be filled with amazing things.

I hope that is what my 2022 “Illuminating” vision board conveys.

This year I did something a little bit different.  I had a plan.  In years past I would grab a piece of poster board and start flipping through old magazines and catalogs to see what looked inspiring and glue it on the board.  Not that this is a bad way to make a vision board.  Many people do it this way.  I have for years.  But this year, I found a better way for me.

In Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist’s Way”, one of the tasks she asks her readers to create a  “Life Pie”.  This exercise uses six different categories to define different parts of our lives.  I decided to separate my board into these six different categories and focus on each category separately.  Since my color of the year is the yellow Illuminating color, I used a yellow piece of poster board.  Then I took six different pieces of white cardstock and glued them on the board to help me separate the six different categories. 

The next part was drawing a “starburst” design in the center of the board.  I used the starburst light photo from the January 3^rd Monday’s Mulch newsletter as inspiration.  Then I wrote the word Illuminating across the center circle.  As I found words and images, I also found photos of yellow flowers to put them on.

Spirituality

I want the glow of the Holy Spirit to be illuminating in all I do this year. One phrase I loved was “Faithful in the Wait”.  I feel like this could be my mantra for the coming year. I feel like Paul and I are always waiting for things to happen, and learning to be faithful and patient as we do it.  I also want to continue to learn even more what it means to “Be Still”, and I am going to start a study on Intercessory Prayer.  All the while I will “Delight: Finding Meaning in Everyday Moments”.

Exercise

I want my whole body to be illuminating from the glow that comes from living a healthy life. I am a consistent walker throughout the year, even in winter.  I want to continue to move, feel calm and relaxed and picture a healthy me.  And take more advantage of the power of the great outdoors for exercise, including more bike riding when the snow goes away.

Play

I want to have some illuminating smiles and laughter after playing in the dirt, the kitchen, and reading a good book. Some of my play time involves reading books, working in my garden and cooking.  I hope to have more fun with each of these areas this year.

Work

I want those who are following Grow Me A Story to find an illuminating path to living a creative life. As Paul and I embark on this new online adventure, I hope we will grow together in the process.  We hope to build a better brand as we learn more about what Grow Me A Story truly is in this world.  We will be sowing the seeds of creativity to others and hopefully help them transform their lives into living more creatively.  And I put this on there just because it was fun…” Underestimate Me. That’ll Be Fun”. 

Friends

Hopefully I can be an illuminating influence in the life of my friends when they need some guidance along their way.  I want to be there for my friends.  I want to be “By Their Side”.  And I welcome new friends, but they need to realize I have a messy, crazy, beautiful life.  I want friends to feel blessed when they come to our home.  And “It’s The Moments Together That Change Us Forever”.  That is what I love…is having those moments and making those memories with my friends.

Romance/Adventure

I want to see the illuminating skyline of New York City and the illuminating top of the Empire State Building. I feel like, of all the categories, planned Romance and Adventure is lacking the most.  With COVID and restrictions and changes in our lives, Paul and I have not had many planned romance/adventure outings in the last few years.  We do love to spend time in our backyard when the weather is nice.  When it is cold and snowy, we do like to hang out at home.  We like to prepare and eat good food with family and friends. I do believe an adventure awaits us in 2022.  My dream adventure right now is attending a conference in New York City at the end of May that focuses on the form of worship we do in our home on Thursday evenings…a quiet, contemplative kind of worship.  So that is one of my big dreams on the board.

An Illuminating year to look forward to in many areas of my life.

It is time to light up an Illuminating 2022.

Did you come up with a word for the year?  How about a color?  Did you create a vision board?  Do you plan to do something to help you create a vision for 2022?  Tell us about it in the comments below.

 The second episode of our Dreams and Bones podcast will be published January 14th.  Would you like to listen to it, as well as the other three episodes this month?  Click here to subscribe and find out how to download and then listen to our interview with Joy Persoon over the next few weeks.

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Here is my friend April with her "Untangled" vision board.