I’ve taken to choosing a word to be my guiding theme during the year for the past few years. The chosen word represents something that might’ve been a challenge for me recently. Some past words were courage and challenge. For 2018, having found that my state of mind and creativity seem to have been blocked for a while, or even closed or fixated, I chose the word Open. I am very happy to report that for the first time since I began “Word of the Year”, the process is actually working as planned.
Some ways that I know my process is working are that I:
- have gotten myself into the habit of referring to my word when negative thoughts or thoughts of “stuckness” come into my mind. I simply let them pass through and think the word “Open” in place of the thoughts. It brings me back to the present and to my intention to keep an open mind.
- have been open to new gardening ideas. One example of this is that we’ve recently constructed and installed an 8-foot trellis in one of the raised beds. This may not sound like much, but let me tell you, this thing is massive and heavy! I have a full post planned on the construction of it for later.
- am redecorating our home in ways that I would’ve previously dismissed out of hand. I am losing the traditional decor that we carried over when moving from our historic 1922 house and reaching for more of the “modern farmhouse” look, which is a bit ironic as we now actually do live in a rustic cabin.
- am open to new ways of thinking. For instance, I have decided to read the whole Bible, finally. It is a very slow process, one verse at a time and I am still in the book of Exodus. That is fine, I will get there even if it takes me a couple of years. I was raised in the Catholic faith and over the years, have gravitated to more of a Buddhist approach. Still, I can appreciate all the religions and want to learn more about them. We did not do a lot of Bible study in my school/church, with the very limited exception of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
So that is my experience with the word of year. Do any of you follow the “word of the year” practice? Has it improved your life? I would love to hear about that. Leave a comment!
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