Last year I offered the invitation to my readers to consider a word shimmering for them that might carry them throughout the year. There were 140 beautiful postings and I later created a Wordle from the entries as a celebration of the prayers gathered. I offer the same invitation this year and again some prizes to give away:
In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to God and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s fire and be stripped down to one’s holy essence. The desert was a threshold place where you emerged different than when you entered.
Many people followed these ammas and abbas, seeking their wisdom and guidance for a meaningful life. One tradition was to ask for a word – this word or phrase would be something on which to ponder for many days, weeks, months, sometimes a whole lifetime. This practice is connected to lectio divina, where we approach the sacred texts with the same request – “give me a word” we ask – something to nourish me, challenge me, a word I can wrestle with and grow into.
Last year my word for the year was sovereignty and it ripened in me as the year unfolded leading me to new discoveries about myself. I resisted the word at first, as I didn’t like the sound of it. But I knew in all the internal energy it stirred up that I needed to pay attention. When I allowed my heart to soften, the word began to shimmer in me, rang long and clear like a chime (hint: sometimes the word which creates resistance in us is the one we most need to pay attention to).
This year my word is sanctuary. This past week I had to go to the emergency room while alone in a foreign country because of leg pain and shortness of breath. I was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism and a blood clot in my leg and admitted to the hospital for two nights of treatment and observation. I am being medically supervised now and will be fine, but the experience was dis-orienting in many ways (in the sense of calling me to a new orientation). I have much to process in the coming weeks, but for now I remember as I lay there in the midst of unknowing, that my thoughts were aligned to home, to my husband, to my friends, to my heart-expanding work, to a longing for the refuge of the familiar, but also a profound sense of sanctuary right in the midst of where I was. The sanctuary in a church is the place where the holy of holies dwells, but we also create sanctuaries for animals needing protection or for persons fleeing persecution. The layers to this word and how it seems to reach out to me prompts me to choose it as my word for the year to see what else it has to reveal to me.
- What is your word for the year ahead? A word which contains within it a seed of invitation to cross a new threshold?
- What word, phrase, or image is shimmering before you right now inviting you to dwell with it until it ripens fully inside of you?
Share your word in the comments below before Monday, January 3rd.
Leave your word for the year ahead in the comments below plus a couple of sentences describing your choice. Please note that I have my comments moderated (meaning I need to manually approve them) so it may not show up immediately, but should within 24 hours.
343 Responses
“Lighthearted”…!!! To see with freshness, possibilities and allowing with God at the controls. I go forward in the New Year with a joyful heart that is Ligthened in God’s Love.
I just now had time to read your email with this wonderful suggestion of picking a word for the new year. I had the other day asked for guidance to help me have a healing New Year and was led to three words…”Kindness”,
“Nutrition” and “Love”.
-I am Kind
-I love eating what is good for me.
-I manifest love in my life in many ways.
So with “Lightheartedness” I am on my way!
So my word I am submitting is…LIGHTHEARTED.
Thank you for all you share and so glad to hear you are back home safe and sound and with good care.
May your New Year be all you ask for!
Blessings,
Genora Powell
I believe that my word, although I feel resistance to it, is FLEXIBILITY. As I am aging, I feel my body physically “hardening” as arthritis has its way with me…my hands, hips, and knees. In turn, I sense that my spirit is also becoming somewhat hardened and inflexible… or is it the other way around???
I will try to ‘loosen up’ as much as I can, with an eye to becoming more flexible in both body and spirit. I have chosen to work on 3 areas this coming year: relationships, physical body, and creativity. I can see FLEXIBILITY enhancing each of those areas in my life. And yet how I cringe at the knowledge that it may be painful…but more painful than the stiffness and limitation I now experience? I think not…
The word that has been calling to me is liberty. I believe that God is inviting me to experience the gift of being free, to know in a deeper way the liberty that is mine as a beloved daughter of God. I desire the grace to move into that liberty in the coming days.
The word that has found me for this next year is DWELL.
Like others, I have struggled to find my word. It came to me today while driving away from the home of one of our patients who just went into hospice care two days before Christmas. I enjoyed our visit of shared stories and peaceful listening. Driving home on a different path I looked up to discover a street named “Surrender” and I immediately knew – this is the word. I wonder what it feels like to live on a street/road/path/boulevard/avenue called Surrender. Of course, I was already learning something about this by simply sitting with this dear man as he surrenders to the truth of his health and well-being in the comfort of home and family.
Greetings Stephanie,
Surrender is a wonderful word. I am an RN working in hospice care and have sat with many wonderful people in a similar situation to the visit you describe. There is such healing and knowledge with your word, it can be truly profound.
Blessings to you.
Ingrid
SHALOM! Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning peace, completeness, and welfare. I have proclaimed the year 2011 that life for me on earth will be as it is in heaven. 2010 has been a year to leave behind and never look back. It has been tough but I believe in Yeshua (Jesus) and with Him at the helm of my ship; I cannot fail. With all the obstacles against and assailing me, I stand courageous and profess that this is the year of true SHALOM with nothing missing and nothing broken in every area of my life. There are so many words that can be considered SHALOM such as restoration, resurrection and redemption; I am ready to claim them all in my life. My second word for this year is HOSANNA! How I desire the highest for the Most High God! And so this shall be speedily released! Happy New Year Everyone!
The captive exile and he who is bent down by chains shall speedily be released; and he shall not die and go down to the pit of destruction, nor shall his food fail. Isaiah 51:14 (Amplified Bible)
I read this in a book and it stopped me for some time reflecting on what it means, so my phrase is: faithing my practice. In this coming year I want not so much to practice my faith but to faith my practices so that my life will speak for me in a better way.
My word is Vision. Aptly enough it came to me visually on the Solstice, a day I spent in silence partially listening for the answer to a question I’ve been carrying for several months. “What does it mean to see with new eye?”
I’m packed and ready to leave for Seattle, where tomorrow I will receive my second cornea transplant. Through the kindness of strangers I will be spared the slow distortion and degeneration of my eyesight from a fairly rare corneal disease. What visions will come to these new eyes? What does Spirit want me to see. May I hold a true vision and walk in beauty. Blessed Be.
My word is “simplicity.” Simplicity and joy were the two charisms of a community that I was a part of many years ago. And here that word is calling to me again. I like the way the word slides out of my mouth when I say it aloud. It speaks to me of decluttering, of silence and solitude, of separating needs from wants, of listening with the ears of heart. What gifts does the word have in store for me this year?
Finally! Finally, it came to me—– “possibility” arrived, meaning — for me — spaciousness, mystery, hope, a vast and powerful endlessness. Yes, possibility!