Give Me A Word

Well, it’s that season when we turn the calendar page and decide we want a north star to guide our ship in the coming year.  I always look to words and to the practice of having a “Word of the Year”.  In years past I have always just sought out one word – mostly by thinking what do I hope to be a guidepost for me in the coming year.  It’s usually an aspirational word – like kindness, or generosity, or patience.  This year I’ve been reading a little book by Christine Valters Paintner, “Give Me A Word”.  In it she talks of not so much seeking out a word as allowing a word or several words to find you, to come to you.  This is not so much a goal or a resolution or even an aspiration.   It is about “listening for what is calling to you”.  It is not so much about thinking as allowing.  She advises that we listen for a word or phrase that “shimmers” for us. 

I began this process as I usually do, by writing possible words on a page in the back of my journal.  Then I tried to resist the urge to “choose one!”  and just allow them to simmer and to keep collecting more.  Which words did I return to?  Which words showed up in other ways in my life?  Which words did my eyes linger on as I looked at the list. Which words excited me? I tried not to rush the process.  To let the words unfold in me. 

In the book Christine offers many ways that you might go about collecting words;  take walks outdoors and ask the natural world for a “wild word”.  Go to poems you love and see if a word appears there.  Consult sacred texts,  your dreams, even possibly an image rather than a word.  Walk a labyrinth and ask for a word.  That is where my word first came to me this year.  It was hard not to grasp for any word that showed up – but rather to just think of it as an interviewing process.  I interviewed several words!  It was fun. 

It is also possible to consider words that you don’t quite understand at first glance.  Some words are challenging and even troublesome, yet they may still be good candidates.  If it appeals to you, look up your word in a dictionary to find all of its meanings – or a thesaurus.  Of course, writing about the words is a good way to see what they hold for you.  Create a haiku of the word, or write a small poem.  Write a prayer to or from this word.  Collage it.  Have fun with the process.  Would LOVE to hear your words!  Please reply to let us know what you’ve come up with or what you are considering!!

Here is a poem of mine – more about the possibilities of a new year than about selecting a word!   I hope 2026 brings us all some peace – and if it doesn’t, I hope we will at least find the ability to roll with what comes.

HIBERNATION

It is that time of year.

Imagine yourself as bear

going into a hole

pulling the door tight

behind you.

But, I myself would not

want to go to sleep

if I found such

a perfectly quiet

solitary place, where

no-one would knock

on the door for four months.

I’d want a heater

and a desk and a ream of paper,

a drawer full of pens.

I would want music

and food to magically appear.

I would want to look out

a window and have my

computer nearby.

I would not make

a very good bear.

But, if I had to,

I would be forced to learn

the very difficult lessons

of boredom, emptiness,

letting go, patience…

nothing to achieve,

no-one to impress,

no duties to tick off the list.

No.  No.  I do not want

to be a bear.

Turns out, I guess,

that I want to be

who I am… Over-busy, charged up,

dancing on the coffee table

with a tambourine

and wondering

what’s on Netflix

and if there are

some potato chips

hiding in the cupboard.

~Penny Hackett-Evans