All In

The Urban Dictionary defines all in:

Originally and still a poker metaphor, 'all in' has also come to mean a situation whose subject is unreservedly involved, without qualification. Fully committed. In this sense the term "all in" is almost the same as its denotative opposite, "all out," as in all-out warfare.

A two-word phrase for how I want to live my life.  All in.

Unreservedly involved. Fully committed. Firmly resolved.  Focused.  Eager.  Ready.

A New Year aside - although it's a tidy little starting line to draw in the sand -  I stare my life straight in the eye, face to face with who I am now, today, so completely convinced there's still more me out there yet to find. 

Welcome to my new place:  one hopeful year

one hopeful year means digging heart and soul deep to find faith and hope.
one hopeful year means discovery ... dedication ... delight in the ordinary ... and the courage to seek out some extraordinary. 

one hopeful year means thinking and reflecting and dreaming and daring and wondering and asking.  It means giving.
one hopeful year means a year of writing.  I write to learn, share, create, and grow.  I write because ... and here's some good grammar ... I can't not.


one hopeful year also means doing.  It's in the doing where I've been stuck.  I've been living some sort of  transitional inertia - neither here nor there - and I'm unsure where to lead this life of mine next. 

High school physics taught me it takes a powerful force to overcome inertia.  Hope is that powerful force.  The kind of force that tells me:  I know I need to go all in in order to live all-out.

Who knows where life will lead in this next hopeful year or what cards life will deal?  I hope you follow this blog and my journey as I push all my chips to the center of the table.  

I'm all in.

Happy Hopeful Year!

Barbara