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
HOPE and the color GREEN…that was my word at the beginning of this year and I have seen it unfold in many layers over this past year and I feel it is to continue…as I have changed careers from a legal secretary to becoming a Registered Holistic Nutritionist…the color green means LIFE…I also feel that I will be given another word at the beginning of 2011
My word is “attentiveness.”
my word is PERSISTENCE… it’s been with me for a couple of years now and seems to sum up a lot of what my journey asks now.
My word is Joy – I have come to a place in my spiritual journey where I am being nudged to seek Joy in every moment – let go, lift up worries, and look to where God is blessing my life and asking me to join in the dance!
My word is “simplicity.” Our oblate group has been studying Sr. Jeremy Hall’s “Silence, Solitude, Simplicity” for the past year and a half. After our study yesterday, the word “simplicity” seems to stand out.
I know it has many layers. It was one of the charisms of the order of sisters that I belonged to for 13 years many years ago. That’s one reason that it surprised me when that word came to mind when I read your question.
Thanks for asking that question.
My word is otium.
In early monasticism, otium meant a measured leisure essential to a monastic life of recollection centred on God and prayer.
Otium was not only an essential part of the life of a monk: it was integral to the life itself.
Otium is how the monastic life was described in the early Middle Ages: a life free from negotium, which means busyness and business.
Otium springs from an inner stillness and silence.
‘like’
I don’t like the way the word feels in my mouth when I say it. Perhaps, then, it is something I really need to pay attention to. Thank you, Christopher.
I like this word very much! Reminds me of ‘modicum’ — from ‘moderate’ and ‘measure’. Just the right amount of leisure. :-)
Silence.
I analyze constantly, my mind chatters all day long, I am reactive without wanting to be, I believe that if I’m not thinking then I don’t exist. I am embracing silence this year.
BELOVED
This morning I was pondering your invitation of asking for a word to step into for the coming new year. I picked up Henri Nouwen’s book “Life of the Beloved” and realized BELOVED is the word I am to claim as the core truth of my existence this year.
Peace is the word I need the most!
My word this year is AUTHORITY.
At first I resisted this word – which is why I guess I have to work with it. I am in process of becoming an ordained minister and must learn to recognize the authority I exude, as well as submit to God’s authority in all things. I’m a work in progress. Have a blessed new year~ Suz