New family tradition of writing yourself a letter for the upcoming year. Tonight we read the letters from 2017 – the year of change – and encouraged each other. Soon we will write the letters for 2018 – the year of purpose.
Last year our family decided to make a transition in moving from Eugene, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. We had agreed that professionally and personally that we were ready for new challenges and had found the right opportunity to move forward with. Our process included options related to moving to Bend, Oregon the possibility of something on the East Coast and finally wrapped up with securing a challenging venture near Seattle.
We have come to look at 2017 as the year of change for our family. Big changes. With kids in 3rd, 4th, 6th and 10th grades we knew there would be unique trials related to the transition from what we knew in Oregon and what we would meet in Washington. We had agreed that we were optimistic about the opportunity to meet knew people, experience diversity and carve out the next chapter of our lives together. It was exciting, it was sad. We were hopeful and conflicted.
As best we could we discussed and prepared for the transition. We agreed to complete the school year in our existing surroundings for the kids and had some time to prepare and say our goodbyes to the friendships we had built. We shed tears thinking of those we would leave behind. We laughed to relieve the tension. We dreamed as we looked forward to what we would experience.
One thing we decided to do as a family was to write letters to ourselves as we prepared for the final leg of our journey North. The assignment was to write a letter to yourself regarding what you wanted yourself to look forward to, where you wanted to focus and what you wanted yourself to know once we had made the journey and had a moment to reflect.
Recently we opened and read those letters. We read the words of challenge and encouragement that we penned to ourselves. We spoke words of encouragement as we reflected together on how we had accomplished our goals, lived on vision and continued to venture forward as a family. We survived the year of change and soon we will write our letters as we prepare for the year of purpose.
If you are a parent who found this helpful or inspiring, you may find that this video is beneficial as well:
Izzy Farmin 