2015 marks my third year of choosing a word of the year. My first choice, love, was great, but I was so new to the practice that I’m not sure it consistently guided my path through 2013. Last year, I chose connection as my word and frankly, I hated it. Not in the way that Laura Simms hated her word; I simply didn’t know what to do with mine.
Connection didn’t give me any action items to take; instead, it brought my attention to what I wasn’t achieving. From that experience, I’ve learned that I prefer verbs—action words—for my word of the year. Had I chosen connect instead, for example, it might have reminded me to reach out to others or to focus on reconnecting with mind, body, and spirit. But I didn’t and connection didn’t.
As 2014 came to a close, I began to contemplate what my word for 2015 would be. A friend, knowing I needed to ramp up my self-care in 2015 suggested the words extreme or intuition. I journaled for word ideas and found unfurling, allowing, and accepting. When I looked up the definition of accept to better understand what I might be signing up for, I knew it was the perfect word.
I had come to it with awareness of the need to accept where I am, what I can do, and the need to heal. But the word accept means so much more and that’s what makes it my perfect word of the year. For example:
1
a : to receive willingly <accept a gift>
b : to be able or designed to take or hold
2 : to give admittance or approval to <accept her as one of the group>
3
a : to endure without protest or reaction <accept certain living conditions>
b : to regard as proper, normal, or inevitable <the idea is widely accepted>
c : to recognize as true : believe <refused to accept the explanation>
4
a : to make a favorable response to <accept an offer>
b : to agree to undertake (a responsibility) <accept a job>
5 : to assume an obligation to pay; also : to take in payment<we accept personal checks>
6 : to receive (a legislative report) officially
There are so, so many ways to accept, from receiving a gift to approving of someone to recognizing something as true. My word of the year is unequivocally:
ACCEPT
Although I didn’t complete Susannah Conway’s Unraveling the Year Ahead guide this year, I journaled about words to bolster my word of the year, and intuitively selected love, write, heal, and explore.
2015 is going to be an interesting year, my friends, as I learn to accept all that comes to and through me with this inspiration.
What is your word of the year and how did you unfurl it?
Cheers,
