I love this picture of my daughter, Allison, and have always called this picture A Woman in Balance. Everytime I see this picture it reminds me to keep myself in balance too, and there are times in every woman’s life when this is easier said than done.

I’ve posted here sometime this summer about reading Debbie Macomber’s book ‘One Perfect Word’, where a person will focus on one meaningful word in his or her life for the entire year, and usually be amazed at the goodness that comes from this exercise.

As I think about this picture of my daughter on her trapeze, and how much I love the photo of her, I think my next ‘one perfect word’ will be Balance, but I’m not quite ready for that just yet.  I chose the word ‘Less’ earlier this summer, after reading Macomber’s book on my Kindle, and BTW ~  I.Do.So.Love.My.Kindle.

But I’m still not ready to let go of the word ‘Less’ just yet. It’s become personal, and feels as much a part of me as my blue eyes.  I want to say to new people I meet, “Hello. My name is Ruth Andrew, and my one perfect word this year is the word Less.” Of course I’m not really going to do that, but it is tempting, because I’m feeling more and more unburdened as the days and weeks go by ~ with multiple trips to Good Will, tons of books given away in various places, and more bags of trash gone from our household each week.  Less.  Live with less and enjoy it more. It’s powerful. After I spend the rest of 2012 and the coming year, 2013, living with Less every day, then I believe I’ll be ready to move towards Balance.

I’m not exactly sure when this will happen. It doesn’t have to happen on January 1st. It’s more of a generic thing in that it just happens. Suddenly you know what your word should be and when you should make the shift to a new word. I think the word ‘Balance’ will simply creep into my consciousness, and then become a part of My-Every-Day for the next year, or for however long I need it to be a part of my life.

Just this morning I counted up the ‘movable’ chairs in our house and said to my husband, “Do you realize we have 25 movable chairs in this house ~ and 5 more out on the patio for a total of 30!” The thought is already eating at me like a beetle. Two people do not need to have 30 odd chairs that move, though some are around the dining room table and others around the breakfast table and the patio table outside, but this still leaves an additional 15 other odd chairs that we store, move, take out, put away.  Enough, already.  We need fewer chairs at our house. We can do with less.

So, if you walk into our front door one day and notice there are no chairs around the dining room table, you’ll know what happened to them.  I never did like those chairs, anyway, and suddenly remember that I was not even the one who picked them out.  They are too big, too heavy and too hard to move. I’m getting ideas now!

As you can see, the word Less is having a huge impact on my life, including the idea that we need to drastically prune our yard. Each week I suggest we move a bush, trim a shrub, remove offending tree branches, or pull out an intrusive vine. I told my husband yesterday that we can become ‘un-gardners’ now, and take out plants and bushes each year, so that when we are ready to sell the house and move, there will be hardly any yard work for the new family who lives here. Our yard would thrive with less, I tell myself daily. And speaking of moving, when that time comes, I’m sure we’ll have fewer chairs to move, also.

No doubt about it. The word Less has served me well, and will hopefully continue on this peaceful path with me for the duration of 2013, but I must say ~ that delightful word of ‘Balance’ is definitely standing in the wings, like an understudy. I can almost feel it. And that is just how it happens.