Yesterday was the first day back to school and work after a nice, two-week break, and so I had a full list of “to-dos” lining my day. Ready to take 2016 by storm, and hit the ground running.

But then my daughter, who had been battling some kind of cold for a few days, woke up feeling sick sick. The too-sick-to-go-to-school sick. And just like that, my perfectly lined up to-do list needed to be re-shuffled and re-thought.

And you know what? I love that that happened. I love that the new year started off by immediately reminding me that “the map is not the territory”: that plans are fine but reality is another thing altogether. I love that 2016 is sending me this message loud and clear: you can prepare all you want, but don’t forget to flow.

I had already been thinking of words for the year. Rather than resolutions, which I have never been a fan of, I’ve been pondering words instead. Words that give intention to the year. And one of the words that keeps coming up for me is flow.

One of the definitions of flow is “a steady, continuous stream of something.” And what bigger something is there than life itself? Life is a steady continuous stream of everything, and I’m reminded over and over that the best way to navigate through life is really just to remember to flow. Because flowing says: “Oh, this day/week/month didn’t go the way I had planned/scheduled/thought it would? That’s not a problem, that’s just life.” Flowing says: “Hey, you over there! Stop fretting about what’s not happening right now and pay attention to what is.” Flowing says: “Keep your eyes open because you never know what unexpected delightful thing might be just around the corner, that you may just miss if you’re buried in your phone/calendar/hamster wheel of life.”

Someone sent me this quote the other day by Alan Watts: “To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.”

So my goal is to flow in 2016… or, I suppose, to flow-t. I’ll try not to grab hold of this water called life and demand it go my way. Instead I’ll work to flow-t through the planned moments and the surprise moments. To flow-t through the easy ones and the hard ones. And have faith that by flow-ting my way through, life and I will have one heck of a swim this year.

How can you flow (or flow-t) today?