Every year I choose a word to represent everything I want to embody in the next 365 days. It’s a very personal choice that I share with my readers because one of my superpowers is vulnerability – and sometimes oversharing. If you know me, you know. This year, the word is Embrace.
Also if you know me, and in this sense I mean if you’ve been following me on any platform, you know that 2022 was pretty challenging for me. It’s been a year of setbacks and delays in both my professional and personal lives, with lots of enforced down time. For someone like me, not being able to create or produce is like torture. I just didn’t have the mental capacity or energy to follow through with anything important as I dealt with my increasingly bad health.
Now that I’m [hopefully, knock on wood] through this challenging phase and well into a healing and recovery one, I am looking forward to things that I’ve had to put aside or delay. I’m finally feeling like I can make some plans and fulfill some dreams. I want to begin again to live in an active, rather than passive, way.
Embrace is a noun and a verb
I always take my time to consider fully what the words that I’m considering as representation of my year mean in all definitions. I like nuanced words, words that are playful. Embrace is one of those words to me, as it encompasses a lot of variety in meaning.
The definitions that resonate the most with me, and that I want to add into my life are:
- to clasp in the arms in affection
- to accept something willingly
- to form a ring or circle around
- to assimilate or incorporate into a body, structure, or system
- to hold in one’s mind or imagination
- to address or meet with expressions of friendliness or welcome
- The process or fact of being received as adequate, valid, or suitable
- Loving care and protection provided by someone or something
Definitions thanks to Word Hippo
Some of these things are actions I can personally take, and create within myself and my life. Others are ones I want to have happen to me, and I can facilitate making them happen by what I choose to pursue. They relate to my health, or my career, or relationships. I’ll do my best to use this word and its meanings to guide my life for the next year.
Do you choose a Word of the Year? If so, what’s yours for 2023?
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2023: Reach For The Sky - Christiane Knight
January 1, 2023 at 8:14 pm[…] been thinking about what I want to change about how I’m living. It’s reflected in my Word of the Year, which is Embrace. I’ve been living a life with many restrictions since before the pandemic […]