A Year in the Life, Week 9: My Motto
Today’s “Year in the Life” exercise asked me to write a “motto” for my life right now. I went for the first thing that came to my mind (because these exercises are supposed to be about writing, right, and not sitting there thinking of what to write?)
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The first motto that came to mind for me was: I am growing.
I imagine it with an image of a flower opening to the sun.
My second thoughts were that people would misunderstand the motto, that they’d think it meant I was a child, or pregnant.
But it encapsulates my sense of life as a journey, of myself as unfinished. By doing these exercises, I am growing as a writer. By sending submissions and accepting rejection, I am growing a thicker skin and my chances at publication. By reading, I am growing my understanding of life’s mysteries, from fairy tales to marriage to God. And as a wife, I continue in my hopes to grow ever-closer to my darling Ivan, and to grow closer to the selfless, Godly love I’m called to live out in marriage.
I am 32 years old, but I am still “growing up,” still trying to get my life smoothed out enough that we can feel ready to start “growing” a family, and then I’ll see my own body growing in new and unusual and beautiful ways, too. And if marriage is a spiritual journey, how much more growing I will discover the need to do when I am a parent.
When I was a child, I never wanted to “grow up.” I think my mind would have been at ease if I’d realized then that I would never be done growing.