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
I’ve been working on my word–actually, I found it a week or so ago, but it’s taken me a while to claim it. In the January issue of Whole Living, I came upon an article by Jennifer Goodman Linn titled “Living Fearlessly.” Immediately I grumbled and snarled and hissed, oh give me a break, no way, not me, forget about it, impossible. I can’t stop being a basically fearful person by pure force of will–believe me, I’ve tried for more than 60 years! I can’t stop feeling what I feel.
But then she wrote this: “I don’t believe it’s possible to live without fear. Everyone has some fear in their lives. I actually think the people who are truly fearless are those who ‘fear less” because they’re willing to confront their fears and embrace them.”
So FEAR-LESS has been haunting me all week, tugging at my sleeve. To even be able to sit with it, I needed an antidote, and found GENTLE. With that, I an beginning to look FEAR-LESS in the face. So FEAR-LESS is my word, but if we can have two, GENTLE will come along as well.
My word for 2011 is “Advocacy:” of self, of others, and especially before the High Throne of God, as well as re-presenting Christ to the world. Another word that has been offered to me is “Maturity.” However, I believe that the maturity will come through the advocacy — walking that out before the Lord in authenticity and truth.
I have spent time with words over the last few weeks and know that it is time to make a ‘commitment’. At first, I thought that ‘commitment’ was the word. But came to a word that is both broader and yet more specific…’mindfulness’. This is a word that I have first grown to understand through meditation. Today, I know it is a word that is so important to how I take care of myself – spiritually, emotionally and physically. It also applies equally to my relationship with others – family, friends, acquaintances and the Divine Being. In other words, I commit to mindfulness. Namaste!
Coming from a New Year’s Retreat, my word is “Voice” – to give voice and expression to what has been squelched and stuffed down in the deepest parts of me. As I reflect on my word, I have a sense of an underground spring that wants to burst forth.
About midway through Birthing The Holy I had a dream in which I wanted to hide …. not to be recognized. I enter my house and try to close the door so I can lock it, however, I couldn’t …… the dream ends when I begin to speak. So the word that was offered me is UN- LOCK. The challenge for me is to continue opening up …. don’t go back to sleep. Something new is happening within me and I want to embrace the unknowing and unfolding each step of the way.
While I am ready to see just what ‘our’ wordle is going to look like, I have been blessed and been made thoughtful with each visit to this site and by every new word ~ may each of us be ready and aware as 2011 reveals itself, day by day.
I remember some time ago viewing in an art gallery what I am imagine a wordle looks like and thought of how much i wanted it–but the words were not meaningful to me. this “wordle” sounds like a soul collage of birthing and suffused with the sacredness of our souls.
My quiet time and meditation this morning did not give me a word. I went on with my morning and off to worship and during the message I began taking notes. Our pastor talked of the events in our lives that change us forever, that often there is no closure. She spoke of healing as a process and not an event. And then she shared the thought that tragedy does not have to consume us but our life can get bigger as we journey on. Following the message my pastor served communion and she had paper stars in a basket beside her. She invited us to take one and that there was a word on it, a gift, something for us to reflect on as we enter this new year. My word was…is…”healing.”
‘divine’
The first word that came to mind for me was “expansion.” It felt good, it felt possible, it felt comfortable. But then a second word came to me, straight out of John Lennon’s Christmas song, “fearless.” It does not feel possible. So
I am choosing “Fearless,” because I know I will fail, and in the failing, I will expand anyway.