Each year Sheila at Book Journey hosts First Book and First Word.  I’ve done the First Book for a few years and here’s this year’s selection…

Here be Dragons:A Parent’s Guide to Redicovering Purpose, Adventure, and the Unfathomable Joy of the Journey by Annmarie Kelly Harbaugh and Ken Harbaugh.  Annmarie contacted me in October to read the new book she had written with her husband.  I saw that she was local and decided to take it.  I started it in November, but since I was writing a book (NaNoWriMo) I was wasn’t devoting much time to reading.  I decided to table it until the new year and here we are. I will be picking it up on page 53, after she’s had her first baby and decides she needs to go back to work.  The book is good and the Harbaugh’s sound like the couple everyone wants to be friends with (hey, we’re local so who knows? ;)).

One Word is something Sheila does every year and I’ve always been intrigued by those who could decide on just one word.  In the last week or so a word came to me and I’m going with it.  Those who know me or follow me on Facebook or Twitter know that the election in November saddened me for so many reasons.  I think we are in for a tough, long four years, BUT in a way it also opened the door for me to become passionate again.  I plan on using Facebook and Twitter to highlight my word every day this year.

I want to live an INSPIRED life.  I want to be inspired by God, my country, my community, my family and friends, and myself.  I want to weed out the noise and negativity and look around that the good that is happening all around me.  When I see an injustice or a problem I don’t just want to complain about it. I want to find the people who are doing something about it and become one of them.  I want to look outside at the beautiful earth we live on and be inspired to be a steward. I want to be inspired by those who know God. I want to find those changing the world and support them.  At first it seems that inspired can be a passive word, but if you are truly INSPIRED you will be changed and have the power to inspire those around you.

What’s your first book of the year? And did you choose a word this year?  Why not be inspired along with me?