What Is Your ‘Word’ For The New Year?
Whenever I guide retreats, I always come away amazed by the profound insights I receive from the people who attend. That was the case again this past week at my online retreat, “Writing the Prologue to Your New Year.”
People joined from across the U.S. as well as Ireland, Peru and the Philippines. One of our tasks was to choose a word we’d like to use as our guiding star for the rest of the new year.
The practice comes from an ancient tradition among monks and religious women in the third and fourth centuries living in the Egyptian desert. Pilgrims would visit these hermit desert dwellers seeking “a word” to guide them on their spiritual journey.
My retreats always reveal just how much emotional pain people are enduring, often unseen by the rest of us. Struggles with the loss of a spouse or other loved one, illness, divorce, a change in jobs, the stress of a move, each person fighting a hard battle.
This made the choice of words at last week’s retreat even more poignant. Words such as strength, trust, peace, touch, wholeness, humility, compassion, connect, and a popular one, hope.
One woman picked as her 2021 word “stream.” She said she imagines herself as a leaf floating along a river, open to drawing meaning from whatever experiences might come along.
Another chose two words, “sacred trust,” explaining that she considers it a sacred trust to hold in her heart the pain and frailties of others. Another facing an empty nest chose “ownership,” as in taking ownership of a new phase of life.
Other words: resolve, reveal, delight, open, action, unveiling, minimize, guidance, clarity, positivity, and joy.
The word I chose for this year is “persevere.” It has less to do with the pandemic and political crises we are facing as a nation than with a commitment to follow through on the many projects I’ve undertaken, including finishing one book and beginning another.
When I told my word to my friend Sister Jennifer Halling of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Kansas, she reminded me that when a sister makes her final vows, the other members of the community embrace her and each says, “May God grant you the grace of holy perseverance.”
I felt as if I had chosen the perfect good word.
What word would you choose for 2021? May you hold it in your heart as the months go on. May it guide your steps as an unwavering light.
