Share your Word for 2014
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. The word which chooses us has the potential to transform us.
- What is your word for the year ahead? A word which contains within it a seed of invitation to cross a new threshold in your life?
Share your word in the comments section below by Monday, January 6, 2014 and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below). Last year we had 840 people share!
A free 12-day online mini-retreat to help your word choose you. . .
This year I am offering all Abbey newsletter subscribers a gift: a free 12-day online mini-retreat with a suggested practice for each day to help your word choose you and to deepen into your word once it has found you.
Sign up here and you can start your mini-retreat today. Once you subscribe you will receive a confirmation email with access to the mini-retreat content (and you are free to unsubscribe at any time). If you are already a subscriber, the invitation will be in this week’s email newsletter.
Win a Prize – Random Drawing Giveaway on January 6th!
I am delighted to offer some wonderful gifts from the Abbey:
- 4 people will win a signed copy of Eyes of the Heart: Photography as Christian Contemplative Practice (mailed directly from me in Ireland to you, anywhere in the world)
- 4 people will win a copy of Naked and You Clothed Me: Homilies and Reflections for Cycle A with two reflections by Christine, plus also Richard Rohr, Rob Bell, Jan Richardson, Fr. James Martin, SJ, and many more!
- 4 people will win their choice of self-study online classes from following: Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert: A Self-Study Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen, Soul of a Pilgrim: An Online Art Retreat, Seasons of the Soul, Lectio Divina: The Sacred Art of Reading the World, or Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Contemplative Practice.
So please share your word (and it would be wonderful to include a sentence about what it means for you) with us below. Subscribe to the Abbey newsletter for your free gift. Share the love with others and invite them to participate. Then stay tuned – on January 6th I will announce the prize winners!
If this is your first time commenting at the Abbey, or you are including a link, your comment will need to be approved before appearing, which usually takes less than 24 hours.
680 Responses
Self
After a couple of years with words that started out being about both myself and others but managed to be all about others in the end, and a couple of big endings/transitions happening now and coming in a few months, apparently God decided that I needed something a bit more pointed to remind me to take care of myself so that I can care for others.
My word is GRATITUDE. I don’t want my life to pass me by without learning to be thankful for the little things and be in the present moment!
My word chose me unexpectedly and it is expansion. In early 2013 I was travelling across the plains of Oklahoma or Nebraska (I can’t remember now). Normally I have my face buried in a book as my husband drives. We are travelling artists and I revel in my time to read on our journeys.
As we drove, I was struck by the expansiveness before us. I could feel it in my core. Immediately I knew I wanted to create a piece of art around this feeling of expansiveness combined with journeying into the unknown.
The result was “The Veil”. The piece was about arriving at crossroads and commencing to cross a threshold into this expansiveness and unknown territory and trusting the mystery of the journey while being soft and gentle with one’s self. Take one look over your shoulder as you leave what has no longer served you and cross the threshold!
My word found me during a hike and I am now finding words to go with each letter that expand on the feeling of EXPANSION.
Shine Well Kindred Spirits!
Come is my word. Come-inviting the Light into my heart, opening my heart and soul to Joy. I came upon this rose in my yard as I was meditating the word. It had survied some of our cold winter spell.
Presence. As in, being present in the moment. As in Practicing the Presence of my Creator. As in, leaving a mark wherever I go, even if the mark is solely that of silence.
I must be present…to myself, to those around and to the King of all things.
My word is Practice. In order to break out of the perfectionism that keeps me from writing and so much else, I’ve decided this year, I’m going to practice those things because practice does not have to be perfect: it’s practice.
I will practice writing.
I will practice meditating.
I will practice yoga.
I will practice self-care and spirituality.
Etc.
This speaks to me so much, Shawna! Blessings in your practice.
Thank you, Christine.
Steadfast was chosen for me this year.
Blessings and peace in 2014!
Whitney
I am embracing the word: PRACTICE.
For many years I have bristled at this – routine, ho-hum, everyday stuff – word. However, more and more I am realizing that if I want my dreams, hopes and wishes to be manifest it is not thru fleeting moments snagged here or there but by a daily (or weekly) attentive practice.
I love this quote which helps point me to this wisdom:
“Anything one does every day is important and imposing and anywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful.” – Gertrude Stein
This year’s word for me is WHOLENESS. It is appearing in everything I read. I keep noticing the “hole” in the middle, and have spent some time pondering whether that might be the word beckoning me instead, but I feel settled pondering the “hole” in wholeness and what gifts that pondering and the whole of the word wholeness may reveal in the year to come.
Dance!
My word to live by this year is “dance” meaning dance with life, dance with my husband, dancing at my son, Michael’s wedding…dance! Dancing is an art form in itself and involves holding on, releasing, spinning, turning, did I say releasing, changing directions, patterns, individuality and most of all having fun. This year I dance!
Consecrating the Day is all about dancing with this one and only life we are living. All too often I get bogged down in the stuff of life and forget to enjoy each day moment by moment…but not this year. This year I plan to savor every moment, every nuance of this dance called ‘Life.’
So, as my pastor friend Mike Lindstrom would say, what does that look like?
Well, for me the releasing comes before the holding…I want to release all those things that hold me back from being the person I want to be. You know what I am talking about. Release those lenses that try to say you could never do or be the person you envision yourself being. Ignore your inner critic who steps up now and then. Most of all, release all the baggage you have been carrying around…the wounds from your past that you cling to, the hurts and unforgiveness in your heart; because you can’t step into the fullness of living and dance while you are carrying all that baggage. (If you need a visual, think of lugging two heavy suitcases through an airport.)
So release and then take that first step. Spin around and see how it feels. Don’t you feel lighter?
Be expressive as you dance. I always remember a scene in Seinfeld where Elaine dances. I laugh just thinking about it. Dancing is all about expressing your authentic self. If you have rhythm, great. If you don’t, dance anyway and dance like no one is watching you. Have fun!
Now, hold on for the exhilaration of the dance. Something happens as you dance…the cares of the world drift away as the music carries you across the dance floor…
Listen. Do you hear the music of life calling you to the dance floor?
What is it that you have been wanting to do but keep putting off?
When and where do you feel fully alive?
Who are the people that bring joy and wonder into your life?
Take the first step and then spin and sway and dance!
Blessings dear ones!
Mary Ann