It feels like everyone I know is choosing a “word of the year” and I want to resist but I just can’t. I don’t make New Years Resolutions any more, because I got sick of failure. Instead, sometimes I make one or two easy to measure goals, like I just want to weigh less on this day next year and I write that on my calendar so that it can be useful and measurable. I believe that you can only do a few things really well and that is why this “word of the year” fad is appealing to me. It is one thing that may touch several areas of life and so that one thing can make a big difference. So here is my review from last year and my reveal for 2019 and they are a little different on purpose.
My 2018 Word of the Year:
Returning from our magical Christmas in England, we did not have all the decorations to put away or the big tree to haul off. We just came home and unpacked. As I sat in the quiet of the last few days of 2018 and put all that had passed in order, I asked myself what do I want 2018 to feel like? I kept coming back to how good it felt after a long day of touring Oxford, England to sit down to a nice pot of tea and a platter of treats or a warm scone. I wanted more of that in my life. More warm scones and clotted cream for sure, but really more space to sit in the quiet afternoon and review the hard work of the day and catch my breath for the rest of the day. So I tried to make that my practice at least once a week. I started to take note of the fractious feeling and if I found it happening around two in the afternoon and I was home, I would stop and have tea. It cured many of my bad days. My word for 2018 was:
I don’t plan to leave it behind either. The English call it the cup that refreshes and I will continue to take it.
These are my favorite tea-things:
I like loose tea:
A nice single serve teapot:
A beautiful tea cup makes a difference:
My 2019 Word of the Year reveal:
My new word is not nearly as beautiful and I can’t write lines and lines of poetry about it, but I think it means more than just one thing. I think it has something to do with all the hard work of this new task I have set for myself as a blogger. I see people doing this thing called blogging so effortlessly, like they were born blogging. While I am over here saying how do you do that? I just learned how to wrap my text around an image on Saturday. I am starting way behind and technology is not my gift so I’m struggling and sometimes it gets a little messy and I look foolish and in over head and it is all public! What does that have to do with my word you might ask. Well, someone asked me if I had in resolutions for the new year and I said, “No, I don’t believe in them, but I do want to learn how to use chopsticks this year so I can stop looking like a dork eating sushi with a fork. So I guess that is my resolution for 2019.” And that is how I started to think about my 2019 word of the year.
When a word means more
For me learning how to blog looks as awkward and unnatural as an adult learning how to eat with chopsticks. The technology of blogging is foreign to me. The ways that social media are used to create a platform feel like navigating a map on another planet with landmarks I have never seen before. I just want to write beautiful sentences and tell good stories, find my people to encourage and inspire them. But here i am figuring out an email sequences to go with my opt-in and it feels a lot like being hungry and looking at the chicken that keeps falling in the bowl when I lose my grip on the chopstick. I just want to eat a bowl of chicken and string together some good words. When this year ends, I will pick up my chopsticks and eat that bowl of chicken or that platter of sushi to celebrate my first full year blogging and all my accomplishments. I will only be able to do both because I have taken the time to develop a new dexterity for each, one a physical skill that requires my muscles and one a virtual skill that requires my mind and my heart. And who knows, I might weigh less because we both know I will be working harder for fewer calories as I learn to use chopsticks.
So here’s to working hard and learning new things in 2019! What is your word of the year? Please comment below or even better add your own blog post to this link and we will read and discuss together as the year begins.
Technology is a beast that I have not conquered but let me encourage you. You are not flippantly writing what you ate today or the bathroom habits of your children. You are eloquent and humorous and you want your writing to reflect that. You have wisdom and beauty Heather and it is always a delight to be around you.
Tricia, Thanks! It is so encouraging when someone gets what your are trying to do and then says it back to you, and that is exactly what you did today. Thank you so much!
L.o.v.e. your word for the year. I don’t do resolutions because I, too, don’t like failure. I have chosen a word the past couple of years. Still feel the twinge of failure at the end of the year, though. Like I didn’t live up to my word. Nevertheless I have chosen a word for 2019. It will join my 2018 word that must carry on to each year I’m breathing.
2018 – grow
2019 – intentional
Here’s to a year of doing the good hard things because we can! Ephesians 1:16-23
Danielle, I love you so much! Thanks for your encouragement! I love that passage!
I love YOU so much!!
Beautifully written! So happy to have found my way here ❤️ My word of the year is Connect 🌺 Funny thing is I didn’t even ask the Lord for a Word, He graciously gave me one while I was seeking Him at my monthly beach trip – in December 😊😊😊
Michele, He knew what you needed before you did and provided it. That’s how He works! I am so glad you found your way here too.
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