Reverb 10: Day 1 "One Word"

There's a wonderful project that I've recently (like, this weekend recently) joined up with...something that seems like a perfect fit for me as I'm coming back into the blogging world and want to chronicle the changes I've been through recently. This campaign of self-discovery is called Reverb 10, and additional details can be found here. You can still participate, and it's free to join! (Hat tip to writer Patti Digh and her wonderful blog, 37 Days, for the suggestion.)

And despite the obvious benefits for me and my writing goals, this process also encourages me (and hopefully my wonderful readers and friends, by extension) to do some real personal cataloging and think about where I am in life now, where I've been, and where I'm hoping to be in the new year to come.

The Reverb 10 process is a series of daily prompts of questions to think and write about, a different one for each day in the month of December. And while I'm unfortunately late to the party in joining up, I plan to do all the days I've missed...two or three at a time...until I've finally caught up. I'm really looking forward to completing this, as well as reading others' contributions.

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December 1 - One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

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2010 word: Stuck. 2011 word: Decluttered.

I choose the word 'stuck' for 2010 because, frankly, that's exactly where I think I am/was most of this year (which is really rather quite humbling to admit, let alone write). I always pride myself on having new adventures and trying to advance my horizons, but the 'new' things have been very temporarily adored this year and the 'old' things just aren't getting it done any more. I'm restless, unsatisfied, and lacking focus...not anxious, not depressed, just suffering a rather long-lingering case of clinical 'whatever'.

To compound this problem a bit, I'm also having a bit of a problem letting go of the 'old', non-working things from my life. For example: I'm not happy with my book selection any more, yet I find it difficult to part with same because I really liked that book once, or I remember buying that book with a friend on a really good day...ad nauseum. The rational side to me knows this 'debate' absolutely makes no sense, but the emotional side to me (also known recently as 'the bored side') is not quite yet ready to surrender.

I could have used the word 'quicksand', I suppose, but that's far too extreme to describe most days and it's not like I feel any rapidly increasing sinking feeling. And, on the flip side, I could have taken the easy way out and just used the word 'bored', but that is far too light of what's gone on for months now. Quicksand implies an emergency state...something that requires immediate outside assistance from a heroic third party to come save my day. Boredom to me, though, is something fleeting...something I should be able to relieve with a good book or movie. 'Should be able to' being the most important words in that last sentence.

That being said, 'stuck' is the most appropriate word for my current year: I increasingly feel the weight of it all holding me in place, with far too many useless items still surrounding me.