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
“Fellowship” is the first word that came to mind as I awoke on January 1. Below are some thoughts I had as I reflected on this word and what it may mean to me and to my circle of family and friends:
“As 2017 unfolded, I found myself often returning to the allegory of the Lord of the Rings, referring to the “eye of Sauron,” the orcs pulling the monstrous Uruk Hai out of the mud at Isengard, the exhaustion and heroic efforts of the weary resistors on a quest for a better world and racing against the evil forces around them before all that was dear would be lost. Does this call out to anyone else?
This morning as I woke to the dawn of a new year, the word “Fellowship” was one of my first thoughts. Fellowship– with friends, family, a higher power, our deepest selves– is a force that can carry us in our lives, nourish us, hold us in the heart. The drive for fellowship brings us together at the turning of the year to joyfully celebrate our hope of a new beginning. At the same time, I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that within this joyful and happy celebration there are shadows in our lives due to not only individual personal challenges but also our growing concern for our world and the outrageous circumstances that are darkly looming around us environmentally, politically, economically—all related to greed and hunger for power. I know I am not the only person who often feels outrage, grief and fear and the humility of being so tiny in the face of such degradation and destruction. It is a daily practice to bring hope to life. Fellowship is the oxygen that can keep the fire going.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
(JRR Tokien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 2)
This conversation took place near a bright window, and before a blazing hospitable fire in the Baggins hobbit home as Gandalf told Frodo the story of the One Ring and the role he must play to destroy it so that the world could be freed of the evil that results from a disordered attachment to power. After this conversation, a famous Fellowship of travelers grows, united in a common vision, but the core fellowship existed even before its concrete formation in the flesh. It lived in the hearts of the individual members in their deep love of the world, its diverse beauty, and the honor of justice. This is what brought them together to vanquish the darkness that was growing. As they traveled the road together, love grew between them and they supported each other in connecting with and becoming the highest form of themselves. They rose to the occasion and in the support of each other.
Our true Fellowships are rooted in love and care and each of us has hopefully felt loving support in some way in our lives. Let us take the warmth of fellowship through our relationship with God, our family, friendships and bonds, rooted in our love for the world and its beauty, into our New Year and feel it as strength to face the challenges ahead. Let us see the good in each other and the gifts we bring to each other and to this world and out of that recognition, let us grow hope. Let us not be afraid to face the shadows.” Michelle Berry Lane, Jan 1, 2018
Nancy Beaman. My word is translucence. I am in the midst of changing many things in my life. These are my personal sentences for 2018: a time of diffused light, of hopeful translucence, a time to hold myself in readiness for new possibilities and surprises in my life.
The word given to me is “debris.” As a #9 on the Enneagram I tend to want to meet everyone else’s needs and then end up having little sense of my own. Therefore, my life can become very fragmented. Below is an acrostic touching on my acceptance of my word for 2018.
D – Debris is not the word for my year that I would choose
E – Except, if God gave it to me.
B- Before, I would have run away from it’s “negative” sense
R- Riffling for a word that would bring me more positive peace & comfort.
I – I accept that I need to hold this uncomfortable word, reminding me of fragmentation
S- So that I will remain more connected, attached, fixed to my Rock, my source, my True Self.
My word is “Kindness”. 2017 was a hard year, full of frustrating events, work disasters, health challenges and all manner of disappointments and hardships. And my reaction to them was often anger and criticism and a couple of times, even rage. None of this is healthy or represents the person I strive to be. So in 2018 I will focus on Kindness – turning my anger and frustration into something positive. Eliminating blaming behavior, focusing on gratitude for what I have, instead of what I do not, or what has been taken away. Treating everyone, regardless of the circumstances, with the kindness every human being deserves. Even – nay, especially – those who I am not particularly enamored with.
Hello Nan, I share your experience of 2017 as a difficult year. In my family, my aging parents are struggling with Parkinson’s Disease (my father) & Dementia (my mother). They had to move from their home of 38 years into an assisted living facility. My mother’s dementia has now progressed to where she needs to move to Memory Care this Sunday for her own health & safety. In the midst of this, I have tried to practice kindness. I am reminded to practice kindness to myself and to others by two quotes:
“My religion is kindness. -the Dalai Lama
“Be kind to everyone you meet, for everyone is fighting a great battle.” -Philo (Greek philosopher)
Usually we cannot see the “great battles” that others are fighting. People tend to keep their “great battles” hidden from the outside world. Thus, when I deal with a person who is grumpy, demanding, or rude, I try to practice lovingkindness toward them & remind myself that they are likely fighting some “great battles” of their own.
My word is “Thrift”. Towards the end of the year I became aware of, and appalled by, the amount of money I spend. Not just on food (which is usually unhealthy, full of sugar and fat) but also on mindless spending; things I think I want and/or need but then find when I have bought them or the postman has delivered them, the thrill of the purchase has gone and I find myself asking “why”. I am also obsessed with purchasing craft items that just sit on the shelf and don’t get used. I then find I have too many and don’t know where to start, so nothing gets accomplished. This year I am changing this. By changing my eating habits I will spend less on food and eating naturally, which will also be better for the environment as I will be purchasing less packaging. I am also going to tithe regularly – a good spending – and save more and spend less. I have already set up an accounts book which will make me think twice before spending and be more accountable to the gift of money.
A word has finally chosen me!
Dwell
Dwell in
Dwell on
Dwell with
Dwell among
Prosperity in the real sense of the meaning.
“TRUST” Even before I discovered “give me a word” the word ‘trust’ has been pushing hard into my consciousness. I realize how I put into categories those areas I feel I can trust God with and those areas I need to ‘take care of myself’. I frequently hear the still small voice say, “You can trust me with this”. My prayer is that this is the year that I open wide my hands and TRUST God with everything.
Integrity
“SOUND”
This “sound”of a voice crying in the wilderness of my Life!