One Little Word® 2017 | Connect
Another trip around the sun is coming to a close.
My overwhelming feeling at the end of this year is wholehearted thankfulness. For the whole of it. The hard parts and the easy parts and the parts in between. It's something we can count on - that crazy mixture of highs and lows and normals - throughout the 365 days we call a year in our lives.
I absolutely loved focusing on the word "whole" as my One Little Word® for 2016. It is a word that I will carry with me for the rest of my life - "open" is another one that I feel strongly about. Whole challenged me in the ways I needed to be challenged and wrapped me up in goodness in so many other ways. I loved asking questions about the different pieces of my own whole and looking deeper into what it means to me to feel "whole."
It's crazy when I think back on all the words I've had over the years (I started this practice in 2006):
- Play
- Peace
- Vitality
- Nurture
- Story
- Light
- Up
- Open
- Thrive
- Give
- Whole
For 2017 I'm choosing to explore my life through the lens of the word "connect."
I'm ending 2016 and beginning 2017 by connecting directly and in person with my immediate family (parents, brother, sister + all their families) at my parents house on the coast. I'm already including "connect" in daily thoughts as I go about the regular stuff of my life - asking myself how I'm connecting with this and that and especially focusing on what I can disconnect from (love the angle of including the opposite of my word).
This blended family life is offering me a whole lot of opportunities for connection and I don't want to miss those. We've all been sinking in to this "new normal" around here - life is such a series of "new normals" isn't it? We get used to a situation or a piece of our lives and then something changes - for better or worse - and then we are forced (either kicking and screaming or accepting or a crazy combination of those emotions) to adapt to the "new" normal. What I have learned over the last so many years is that we are always riding that wave - either in the beginning or the end or somewhere in between. It is life. It is our life. What we get to choose is how we respond and live through all those moments.
In 2017 I hope to specifically investigate areas related to connecting with myself, connecting with others (especially family and community), connecting with work, and connecting with nature/outdoors (I feel a strong pull towards that this year). I also plan to focus on the idea of disconnecting in order to make sure I'm living in alignment with my highest values.
If you'd like to hear me talk more about this topic, check out a new podcast I did earlier this week with Elise about our words from last year and this year. It's a very candid conversation about what's worked and not worked related to both choosing and living with our words.
My wonderful little heart shown above is from Liz Lamoreux and is called a Whole Heart Pocket Talisman. It's a wonderful way to keep your word close throughout the year.
SHARE YOUR WORD IN THE COMMENTS
I’d love to read what word you’ve chosen or are considering for 2017. In the comments feel free to simply leave your word as your comment or write a bit about why you are choosing this word. Next week I’ll combine all the words into a single post – it's become tradition and super inspiring to see all the words in one place.
If you’re new to the concept of One Little Word®, you can read some of my previous posts here: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
JOIN ME IN MAKING OUR WORDS VISIBLE
To help keep your One Little Word® more visible throughout the year I offer a year-long workshop featuring one creative prompt per month. Read all the details and sign up here. Registration is $5 off until December 31, 2016. I've also created a selection of products to help you document your journey with your word - check those out here (stamps will be restocked later in January and we have a pre-order happening for an additional restock of the blue albums that will arrive in late March/early April). During the One Little Word® 2017 Kick-Off ordering period (between now and 1/31/17), items featured on the One Little Word® 2017 page are eligible for free shipping domestic and $5 international. If you add any other items from the shop to your cart, normal shipping rates will apply to those additional items.
Reach
Sign in or sign up to comment.
HARMONY - searching for harmong in difficult times, finding harmony within, giving harmony to others.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
AUTHENTIC - going to be me, true to myself, not fitting into someone else's mold. to thine own self be true!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Nourish - after a year of personal loss and grief in 2016, I need to begin to nourish myself.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
TRANQUIL
Sign in or sign up to comment.
EMBRACE - I know its not original its probably been picked a gazillion times, but not by me.
For me its all about getting on with things "embracing" it all, the good the bad and the ugly.
Love the "Another trip round the sun" phrase, totally stealing that for the first page of this years album.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
FIND -- Find peace, joy, quiet, time, me, passion, patience, etc. As I thought about choosing my word, many of the nouns listed came to mind but I like choosing verbs. FIND seem to fit all my nouns.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
VOICE
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Focus. I am inviting deeper connections, finishing things and letting go of distractions.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Build - I chose this word because there are a handful of big projects that really do need my more of my attention next year than they got this year (like trying to get through the approvals process to build a new house -nightmarishly slow process, monetize the blog, get in shape, etc). The word fit the bill for all of that and is versatile enough to apply to other things but I was hesitating about picking it because it didn't feel as inspirational as a lot of the words I have used in previous years. Then I ran across a quote in Pinterest that read "my goal is to build a life I don't need a vacation from" and I thought "ah-ha! I think BUILD will work just fine for this year."
Sign in or sign up to comment.
GROWTH
Sign in or sign up to comment.
FOCUS
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Lean - to lean in with relationships; lean out my clutter and to get lean & fit.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
My word for 2017 is HOPE. It came to me during by a sermon in early December and now I've been seeing it everywhere
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Rise
Sign in or sign up to comment.
CREATE. It is a proactive word to inspire my aspirations.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
STRONG :)
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Less. Less stuff, less stress and less procrastinating.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Release. So much to release myself from and release myself to receive.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
My 2016 OLW was "home." For 2017 my word is "roots." With a new home, what does it mean to live fully and deeply in this place I call home?
Sign in or sign up to comment.
EXERT
Sign in or sign up to comment.
attention
Inspired by this word for lots of reasons right now, but one is how Mary Oliver writes about this word again and again. <3
Yes. So good.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Story
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Love
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Align. Aligning my body, mind, & spirit to more smoothly attain my goals.
Sign in or sign up to comment.