SHARE YOUR WORD FOR 2018
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 January 5, 2018 and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below).
A FREE 12-DAY ONLINE MINI-RETREAT TO HELP YOUR WORD CHOOSE YOU. . .
As in past years, 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. Even if you participated last year, you are more than welcome to register again.
Subscribe to our email newsletter and you will receive a link to start your mini-retreat today. Your information will never be shared or sold. (If you are already subscribed to the newsletter, look for the link in the Sunday email).
WIN A PRIZE – RANDOM DRAWING GIVEAWAY ON JANUARY 6TH!
We are delighted to offer some wonderful gifts from the Abbey:
- One space in our upcoming New Year’s online retreat – The Wisdom of the Body
- One space in our Lent retreat – Watershed Moments in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
- One space in our online program Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
- 4 people will win their choice of our self-study online retreats
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 to receive ongoing inspiration in your in-box. Share the love with others and invite them to participate. Then stay tuned – on January 6th we will announce the prize winners!
433 Responses
The word that arose for me is “Cultivate”:
Create a spaciousness to
Unleash the unexpected.
Lean into the unknown and
Till the soil of life’s experiences to
Invigorate growth where nothing appears to be.
Value the slowness of each movement.
Attend to what draws the heart.
Tend to the fragile newness of what sprouts,
Engendering unforeseen possibilities.
I love, love, love this poem!!
My word is GERMINATE: “to begin to grow and put out shoots after a period of dormancy.”
The past two years brought a double mastectomy, chemo & radiation while my beloved husband received chemotherapy and died a year ago, and a very serious accident involving my granddaughter and son-in-law. These events created a time of care-giving, grief, worry and responsibility. Now dawns a precious time to put out new shoots of joy, creativity, wonder and re-discovery of Self. With strong roots, I am stretching toward the light!
My word is Closer. I look forward to a deeper and closer relationship with precious JESUS and helping other women to do likewise.
I have been ATTENTIVE to all the WILD places my thoughts and dreams have taken me in my search for a word to guide me through 2018. I WONDER where the coming year will take me, perhaps to the WILD edges of my soul. I long to RECONCILE with my shadow self, and find that young girl I was before my HEART was wounded. In 2018 I want to ILLUMINATE the dark corners in my life, step out of the shadows and SPEAK my truth. I am ready to CREATE art, poetry, friendships and RECREATE, that is, play and have fun. There is much to FORGIVE and so many, including myself, to CONSOLE. Through all of this, there is a desire to NOURISH, both body and soul. Take COURAGE, my heart, for the journey.
My word is COURAGE. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93c6d27eea61796d3c83f5b88286dad1c0c77f55546c7a7b23403ff034712fd8.jpg
My word is “Adventure”. It’s about treating the serious with a sense of play which allows creativity to flow. But more essentially its about making, exploring and experiencing adventure. It’s about making adventure the centre of experience and asking where is the adventure in this. Making adventure the goal. How can I make this adventurous? What does this look like when viewed from a lens of adventure? Adventure can be in the kernel of everyday moments though it is also an experience to be designed and sought. A nature trail that is a train ride away. The surf lessons which are weekly though take place 3 suburbs to the left. Allow adventure. make adventure. experience adventure.
I like this a lot although I did pause at the idea of “making adventure the goal” as it sounded like simply seeking adrenaline-inducing activities but you explained it more later. Happy new year! Did you have an adventure today?
Happy New Year! My adventure today was waking up at dawn! I’ve for many years wanted to have a dawn meditation and movement practise. And today I did and loved it. And to be able to make a daily practise of this will be an adventure indeed. Similarly I’ve registered my own Design studio late last year and taking the first steps in designing our debut product and building a company. The word “entrepreneur” itself means adventurer in French, so long as I hold the rudder steady and concentrate this journey has the potential of becoming an excellent adventure. To that extent my feeling is the adventure will happen in the everyday and through the year long as I focus, concentrate and ease into whatever experience I’m in the midst of. Perhaps my underpinning key word is “CONCENTRATION”.
My word for the year is “Listen” and it came to me in the middle of this year so I first dismissed it. I have now embraced the word for 2018 and will take a different aspect for each month to follow.
My word is Joy. After three very difficult years, it is time for me focus on the pursuit and giving of joy. I’m very much looking forward to it.
YES! My word is “YES.” YES to the movement of the Spirit on a daily basis, and YES to Spirit’s call to move out of state in 2018 to follow an undeniable vocational call. YES to all of life! Thank you, Christine, for helping me come to this point of embracing the holy YES inside.
I will journey with the word CULTIVATE!
My word came to me slowly this year. This has been a year of exhausting service — important, but enervating. I went through several — delight (something that’s been missing), embody (under stress, I get into my head. Today my word chose me: Tend. Tend to my light, to my art, to my home, to nature. It has a warm, gentle manner to it that defies perfectionism, that encourages kindness. This year I will tend.