Choosing a word for this year has been a challenge. Many possibilities passed my mind, but none seemed quite right.

One of the rationales behind this meme, as I understand it, is to avoid the pitfalls of resolutions: resistance, stress, failure. I realize, though, that I am quite capable of carrying those pitfalls over to a chosen word. I considered WRITE, for example, an obvious choice, which can be experienced as a command.

My choice last year was ORDER. So much for that. Is my life more ordered? Have I incorporated the practices I hoped for into my daily life? Well, maybe, a bit. Or maybe I just learned that life tends to intervene and reorder things to its own liking.

LOVE, too, could be interpreted as a command. In fact, in some circles, that’s exactly what it is.

A conversation with my lover:

Me:

I'm thinking my Word should be: Love. Because:

• I think about it all the time anyway.
• I want to learn how.
• It's not like a resolution, even though I do believe that, at least to some extent, it is a decision, an action, a choice, a practice. Even a ritual, a sacred observance.
• A challenge and a reward.
• Commitment.
• Promise.
• As close to faith as I am ever likely to get.

Him:

poetry

Me:

?

Him:

• act of the poet
• resolution
• the precipitate of contemplation
• the distillate of longing
• the ferment of life

. . .

• well
• the well

~

The Well. Indeed.

More to come.

~

2018 JUST ONE LITTLE WORD

My One Word for 02018. The 3-D letters are from JustArt. Other elements are from Anna Aspnes; Crafty Button Designs; TlcCreations (altered); EHStudios; Rebecca McMeen; and Dawn Inskip, Just Jaimee, Little Butterfly Wings, & Nancy Rowe Janitz from various M3 kits & add-ons.

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