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 words that I finally wrote down to see which would choose me:
Cling
Wild
Be.Here.Now
Through these wonderful Give Me a Word meditations AND the Winter Solstice Meditations at “Awakened Woman Self Care Podcast joy@awakenedwomanselfcare.com” of which Christine Valters Painter was a speaker, the word that came clearly was WILD. Wild is to be of my true nature, not the domesticated self that has grown strong through my 62 years of life. I am being called to love and embrace the WILD, the freedom from the domesticated life I live.
Another thing emerged that was a surprise to me: to pay attention to the bee and the blue dragonfly in nature. I’d rather watch for the tiger or the bonobo, but they weren’t the WILD that was calling me. So, in obediance (listening with the heart) to these gift, I will be aware of those two WILD insects to see what they will teach me about how WILD came to be my word.
Christine, I love your work. It has truly enriched my life these last weeks! Blessings and Love to all in this community! All of your words are poignant and true to you. Love this sharing!
“Recognize” …to pay attention to what Spirit is showing me, especially in the world of intuition/unconscious.
My word for the year is “Equanimity” in the Buddhist sense of non-attachment, nondiscrimination, even mindedness; not in the sense of indifference or flattened affect.
Thank you for this wonderful journey into the new year.
My word for 2018 is “Spinning”.
I have been sweetly guided by my mentor artist Alexander Calder and poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
“When everything goes right a mobile is a piece of poetry that dances with the joy of life and surprises.” ~ Alexander Calder
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke
I was also led by my father through memories of dancing and spinning as a little girl.
Lyrics from one of my songs
Kitty Kat and Tootsie we were daddy’s little girls
And with little sister Meggie we made three
Together we’d play dress up from our box of let’s pretend
And we’d go traveling off to places that we had never been
Oh daddy won’t you play us a tune,
Your girls want to dance all around the living room
Daddy, please daddy won’t you sing us a song
We’ll make up new words and we’ll all sing along
He’d have us waltzing and twirling and begging for more
We’d be laughing and spinning till we fell to the floor
Close to my heart I hold memories of you
Of my daddy you were, of the love that I knew….
With gratitude,
~Susan Irene
Grace in everyday, opening to Grace.
The word chosen for me is Grace.
My word for 2018 is “blessed”. I have lived in a lot of fear that God didn’t know or love me. I learned in 2017 that He did. So this year I am deliberately looking for an acknowledging all the ways, large and small that He blesses me. For too many years I did not see what was done for me or given to me each day by way of gift. This year I will embrace and acknowledge all.
At first I thought the word that choose me this year was ‘accept’ then it expanded to ‘acceptance’. I’ve been pondering it for a few days……..
The word that rose up for me is “attend”. To show up. To wait for something. To be of service to others. To pay attention in the moment. To be attentive over time to my surroundings. To be stretched.
And there was a beautiful conversation in the recent film “Lady Bird” about attention being love.
The word that emerged for me over the Advent season is connection.