In a recent post, Stacey at Two Writing Teachers, wrote about choosing one word to live by during the coming year and challenged her readers to consider one word for themselves, as well. Go to http://bit.ly/tkIFle to read her post and to add a comment. I wrote that my little word for the coming year was presence even though I had also been thinking about health as my little word. Then, this afternoon as I was thinking about what my Slice of Life would be for today I started rethinking my little word and presence somehow morphed into no. I know that sounds very negative – little words should be positive, shouldn’t they? But then I thought about it some more and for me no is positive and fits in with presence and even health. Can you have two or more little words to live the year by? In any case, I have decided to choose no as my little word for the coming year to remind me that I don’t need to say yes to everything nor do I want to. In fact, I need to learn how to say no more often, especially to things that take me away from my family and other activities that I enjoy and give me energy. It has taken me a long time to recognize that I have not been present to the things in my life that matter. But now that I have seen the light, so to speak, I am more determined than ever to keep what’s important at the forefront of everything I do. And, saying no more often will help me stay true to myself and what’s truly important. And, so it is.