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
“Hear” is my word for this year. So much of our faith is about hearing. Hearing the word of the Lord. “Hear O’ Isreal….” Listening and hearing go hand in hand concerning our faith. I struggle to remind myself that my relationship with the Lord is about so much how I perform, but rather, being still, listening and waiting the hear the lord. I feel like I can write so much about the importance of hearing, but that’s not what was asked. “Hear” is my word for the year.
Connections… This word wasn’t one of the two I’ve been pondering since this invitation was issued. It is, however, the word that keeps popping up around me and within me. So… this year I want to pay attention to connections and to abide with the word and its actions – connections to, connections with, connections between… I want to explore what surprises in meaning this word may have to teach me and to learn to be alert to where they occur.
Connections… This year I want to pay attention to connections and to abide with the word – connections to, connections with, connections between… I want to explore what surprises in meaning this word may have to teach me and to learn to be alert to where they occur.
Whoops! Didn’t mean to post twice. I thought this one was lost – I had never hit submit and it had disappeared.
Servant . . . not a word I would have choosen . . .
Simplicity…….in thought, word and deed. Avoid internal and external chaos and all of the stressors that they bring along with them. Envision the goal so as to see the forest through the trees….. of people, places and papers!
My word for 2011 is FOCUS, serving as a reminder, both gentle and solid for me to focus on.
My word is BALANCE. I played with acceptance, balance,focus and patience. Acceptance had no energy. It felt like tolerance. Focus is important as I get older and seem to forget and to be overwhelmed. I pray to be patient in all of my life changes. But then, all of the above could be a part of being balance in ministry, prayer, social life etc. Balance could call for moderation in all things too. I feel pulled in many directions. I feel more is being asked of me as I get older. I know I have to say to myself “I am not the Messiah” . I am called to serve. To do what I can spiritually, mentally and physically. Amen
This is a wonderful exercise
My word is tender. I want to be more tender with my body, with my spirit, and with others in my life.
As an Enneagram 9 it’s very easy for me to be accommodating and give people what they want; this is different. As I am tender with myself, I hope to maintain boundaries to be appropriately tender with others.
My word is simplicity, which I want to embrace as a discipline in 2011. I like the sound of this word these days. Mindy Caliguire has helped me out in defining it in her little book by the same name. “Simplicity means taking action to align one’s exterior world with one’s interior values and commitment to God.” I long for the alignment, integrity and wholeness that will come from giving simplicity a priority in my daily life.
My word is contemplation, I do want to have a more contemplative life and it is as if God is saying it is up to me to simply wait upon Him, being open to God, being available for God, longing towards God in a kind of inner darkness, which though dark is full of an indescribable light.