One Word - 365 Days of Change

 One little word. Sometimes one little word is all it takes to change the course of history. Yes. No. Maybe. Stop. Go. Attack. Retreat. Or change an attitude. Live. Laugh. Love. Dream. Be. One little word can even change your life. Forgive. Believe. Learn. Begin. Heal. So much is carried in those words. Such power. Such potential for change. I’ve witnessed the power of words in many ways, and have seen the results – in myself and others.

My personal experience using a power word started with a 365 art journaling project inspired by a crafty friend. You can read more about it on my Crafty Neighbor Blog. Christen and I decided to try a word of the year project, but turn it into a 365 project to work in our art journals. 365. I’ll let you think about that for a moment. We wanted to do an art journal project EVERY DAY for 365 days. We came up with 365 prompts, then started making pages that tied our word of the year to those prompts. It was hard work, and I can bet you already know how it turned out. I made it through about May, or maybe June, and then it just fizzled. 

Was it a failure? Oh, heck no! I feel like it was a great success. My word for that year was heal and through daily art journaling, I did a lot of healing. And even though I wasn’t working on that project every day, I was still working on it – I am still working on it, and will continue to do so. I’ve tried to keep up with posting the pages from that art journal on my Flickr.com account. Feel free to browse the album, or check out the CraftyNeighbor365 group to see what others have done with this project.

Over the years, I’ve picked other words, done other projects, and found ways to incorporate the word into my life. I chose words like organize, simplify, and heal (I’ve used that one several times over). The words helped me focus on what I wanted to create in my life, where I wanted my focus to be. Mostly I just worked on my own. I found projects that were symbolic of the word or that helped me through the process of living that word. Then a friend introduced me to Ali Edwards and her “One Little Word” project, and the real magic started to happen.

Yes, I know I’m starting to sound like a total fan-girl for all things Ali Edwards, but sometimes a designer just speaks your language, and Ali surely speaks to me. The video introduction on the One Little Word page is powerful, and says far more eloquently what this project means to me each year. It is profound, complicated, and intense, and it has brought me so much acceptance and peace. 

I do the project a little differently each year. Some years I buy the class, some years I buy the kit, sometimes I’m in a 6” x 8” album, or (this year) the softcover journal. The process is part art and part journaling, but there are really no hard and fast rules about how to do it. You could approach it from a completely photo-journalistic perspective, a serious written journal, or all art and collage. My work tends to be a combination of all three. Is it good art? Good writing? Good photography? Does it have to be? NO! This is a project for me and really no one else. This is for my growth, my benefit, and no one else’s.

If you'd like to see a flip-through video of my 2020 One Little Word project, visit my YouTube account here. So whether you take on a 365 project, join Ali’s “One Little Word” workshop, chant your word in a unity circle, or use it in some other imaginative and resourceful way, consider what your word might be. What word could take you from where you are now to the person you want to become – the person you are meant to be? What word could propel you, sustain you, and empower you? What is your “one little word”, and what will you do with it next? Leave us a comment…we’d like to know!

How One Little Word Can Make a Huge Impact

November is one of my favorite months of the year. Although Thanksgiving and my birthday are major reasons why I love this month, there are other things to consider. And no, before you ask, it’s definitely not because of Black Friday. I’m not that kind of gal. During this time of year we really get the chance to live in the past, present and future, figuratively speaking. The year is starting to come to an end, and let's face it, as soon as Thanksgiving is over, the tree comes up and December blows past us like a whirlwind of celebrations. October 31st - January 1st is one big celebration for me. I really try to live in the moment, be mindful, capture every story and embrace the cooling temperatures. It’s the time to snuggle up and enjoy the longer evenings and make the home cozy.

In addition to enjoying the moment, I tend to reflect on the year that has gone by, see the progress that has been made, pat myself on the back for a job well done, and assess areas in my life that could benefit from an up-leveling. During that time of reflection, it is nearly impossible to keep myself from thinking ahead to the upcoming year. I will start to imagine what it will be like, or better yet, what I want it to be like. I start making plans for the upcoming year and visualizing the changes, it's just natural for me. I get all geared up for the transformations, so that starting on January 1st, I’m ready to rock the new year right out of the gate.

There have been many approaches to setting goals and resolutions, but I do something a little different - actually a lot of things differently. You might be asking where I am going with this and why I am talking about it now, in the fall, but just bear with me. Generally people set a goal or resolutions for the new year and it is long forgotten by February. We typically get burnt out or side tracked. I would always lose my focus around February when the Valentine’s Day candy comes out. So the real challenge is finding creative ways to incorporate your goal into your everyday life so that you don’t lose focus.

One of my favorite methods is choosing my word of the year. I started doing that around 2010 when a crafty coworker of mine introduced me to Christine Kane’s Power Word, or Word-of-the-Year. Christine’s technique allows me to select a word that I feel would benefit me throughout the year, and focus on my goals, without making me feel like I am not achieving my goals. I can find ways to incorporate my word into every aspect of my day to day life.

Over the years I have picked words and used my creative abilities to flesh out what my word means to me. The first year I selected “Productive” as my word because I was seeking ways to break old habits and transform my approach to life. My mom and I thought it would be a great way to work in our mixed media art journals by creating a page every day. You can read more about that in Cindy’s article later this week.

As time has passed, my method for incorporating my word into my craft has changed and I have discovered that I really enjoy following Ali Edwards’s One Little Word. She has an awesome class that lasts all year long where she posts exclusive content each month for those who sign up. There are some great products that she designs each year that go along with the project. Each month I eagerly look forward to what the prompt is, and generally work on it throughout the month. She really focuses on journaling with a bit of design inspiration. It’s one of those things that you can transform into your own style and be as elaborate or simple as you like. The take-away is incorporating the word into your life, documenting your experiences, and reflecting on it. It truly is a great add on to your goal setting.

For me, this is the keystone to my goal setting for the year. I start with the following steps:

• Visualize what I want my year to look and feel like.
• Narrow down the feeling into a single word that can be used all year long.
• Set the intentions, create goals, or resolutions.
• Make your word visible.

The first step in selecting your word is to sit down and really think about what matters to you and what you want to get out of the upcoming year. For example, if you have been overwhelmed or stressed out this year, picking the word peace is a great focus word. It is a flexible word with many meanings and great imagery that you can work into your everyday life, whether it is with your family and friends, work, personal space, or even on a grander scale like world peace etc.

I suggest sitting down and just writing out words that resonate with you, or if you feel like you need a pushing off point, there are some great places on the web where you can generate a word. One of my biggest pieces of advice beyond that is to make sure that your word is flexible, verbs and adjectives work best. Nouns can be tricky if they are not multi-faceted. For example, snow would not be a very good choice in my opinion because it is not something that you have much control over, and it doesn't occur all year long for the majority of us. Have fun with your word, try it out for a day and let it roll around in your mind. If you can’t decide between two or more words, that’s ok, just sleep on it and over time you will start to lean into one of them more so than the others. If you get a head start before the new year, then you will have plenty of time to decide.

If you are having a hard time getting started I highly recommend checking out Christine Kane’s downloadable free worksheet. Ali Edwards’s website has a list of words that I like sifting through. You can find it here or you can just do a simple Google search for word of the year list or One Little Word (also known on the web as OLW).

I would love to hear from you on what words you have chosen in the past and any creative ways that you have incorporated your word into your daily life. I especially enjoy getting insight from the non-arts and crafts community who take part in the Word of the Year or similar trends. We will be sure to announce the words that we have selected for ourselves before the new year so make note to check back in. If you are curious as to how I incorporated my word of the year into my mixed media arts, or my Ali Edwards’s inspired project check out the images below.

2020 - HARMONY

2020 - HARMONY

2020 - HARMONY

2021 - LESS

2021 - LESS

2021 - LESS

Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year, readers, listeners, friends, family, and anyone else who happens to stumble across this blog! I think I speak for all of us when I say, “I hope 2023 will be better than 2022, and that all the blessings, luck, fortune, and opportunities will come to all of us.” We need it.

Last Sunday, I was reflecting on everything that had come to pass in 2022. I was wrapping up my One Little Word and PowerSheets projects in anticipation of starting a new One Little Word and goal-setting system for 2023. As I read through my workbooks, rereading all the journaling, reflections, poetry, and quotes I had written and collected, I kept running across little nuggets of wisdom and insight that showed me just how much I have changed and grown in the last 12 months, and I found so much I wanted to share, that I thought I would offer some of it here as a sort of recap of our year together.

Those who’ve been reading and listening to Modern Musings all year probably know that it has been challenging for me. After caring for and losing a dear friend to cancer in January, I had thought the worst was behind us and I was on track to my best year ever. But then, in July, my husband, Mark, was diagnosed with lung cancer, and the tribulations continued to mount. Around the same time, Mark also lost his job of more than 20 years. All the while, I was still struggling to rebuild my little travel agency, and hoping to turn a part-time hobby for fun money into a full-time, bring home the bacon cash cow. And lest I forget, I need to mention my mother, who has Frontotemporal Dementia and who needs to move to a Medicaid skilled nursing home before she runs out of money.

All this to say, “Whew! It’s been a lot!” And I have been quite remiss in sharing with you any sort of progress with my goals or my One Little Word since we first introduced the concept on our podcast in late 2021. Amber, Christen, and I chose words for 2022 that reflected the goals we wanted to achieve in the coming year. We talked about “why”, and even mentioned a number of ways “how” we develop our words, but we never came back to share progress or results. For that reason, I have created this flip-through video to share my personal journey with my word, “now”, which was inspired by my reading of Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth.”

I know you can’t see all the detail in the journal, but I hope this video will help you see the merits of doing your own One Little Word project, whether it’s through Ali Edward’s workshop or even just working on your own. I do feel like it has been a life-changing experience for me, and I highly encourage everyone to give it a try. If you’re still on the fence, here is a recording of Ali Edwards in a Zoom with her instructional team as they discuss choosing their word.

I announced my word back in December, but I actually chose it much earlier than that. After the challenges of 2022, I thought it might be nice to choose something easy and fun. My word for 2023 will be “Light”. What will yours be?

It's All About the Name

 

Have you ever felt like your computer (or your phone) was spying on you? Capturing bits of information from your in-person conversations and then presenting it to you via some curated advertisement that seems just a bit too coincidental? I don’t want to go off on a whole rampage about that particular invasion of privacy – that’s a whole topic for the podcast someday (I mean, we all know they do it, right?), but it just happened to me on Pinterest, and it gave me a topic for this blog I’m trying to write.

Our topic for this week is grimoires and why people might use them. I think we covered a lot of material in the podcast yesterday, and I really don’t know that I have a lot to add to that discussion except to say that it is what you make of it. To each, his own, so to speak. But as I was pondering what in the heck I could write about that might be of interest, I flipped through my emails and got a pin recommendation from Pinterest that surprised me because it was not related to the other pins in the email, and because, just last night, I was editing the podcast on this very topic – grimoires. Weird, right? 

You can see the pin here.

What intrigued me about this pin was the notion of a “Book of Mirrors”, which is quite interesting to me. It sort of reminds me of several of my projects and journals, but most particularly, it made me think of my One Little Word project because that is exactly what One Little Word is all about: insight, wisdom, awareness, self-growth, self-discovery, experience, inspiration, and growth. And while I normally equate my OLW project with a sort-of self-help psychology, this concept of a book of mirrors puts it squarely into the metaphysical realm. Because, if getting truly in touch with your inner self isn’t metaphysical, then I don’t know what is. And what is a collection of metaphysical studies kept in a book? A “Grimoire” or a “Book of Shadows.” 

I already mentioned in the podcast that I don’t really care for the name “Book of Shadows” because it conjures up a lot of negative connotations for me. As a fledgling metaphysicist (or would that be a metaphysician?) who happens to also be a Christian, I consider myself to be a “Light Worker” – someone dedicated to bringing light into this world and to help others. Keeping a “Book of Shadows” just doesn’t seem to align with that, does it? But a “Book of Mirrors” ...that’s something I could get behind, even if it’s more about helping myself than helping others.

Think about it…a light worker’s calling is to shed light on the world, to illuminate the dark places, and to reflect the light they see in others. Like a mirror. Shining a light on the darkness. Helping others see the beauty in themselves. Mirrors are powerful. Mirrors allow telescopes to see the stars that are invisible to the naked eye. Mirrors help lighthouses focus their light out to sea to guide ships passing in the night. Mirrors allow us to see ourselves clearly as we truly are. Sometimes we even use mirrors symbolically when we describe how we project our own feelings onto others (and that’s a bit of shadow work).

Yes, I think some of my projects like One Little Word are in essence a “Book of Mirrors” because as part of that project, I gain insight and wisdom about myself. I am inspired by the other participants who share their growth and experiences. And in many ways, I hope that sharing that project with others, which I do via my Instagram and Facebook profiles as well as in the One Little Word Facebook group, will help others, too. And in many ways, it’s what this blog and our Modern Musings podcast is all about, too. 

But then I’m still left with what to call my collection of recipes, herbs, crystals, affirmations, healing, and prayers. I don’t want to reference shadows. “Grimoire” doesn’t fit, either, because it’s far too “witchy” for my taste, and I feel more like a healer than a witch, per se. So as I mentioned in the podcast, using a grimoire always comes down to intention. And since my intention is not tied up in darkness or shadows, and grimoire doesn’t have the right vibe, I need another name for it. So when I think about my intentions and I think about my One Little Word, I have my answer – Light. As a lightworker, my grimoire, my grammarie, the book that holds all my knowledge and expertise, should be called my “Book of Light”. Plain and simple. And that feels right.

What about you? Do you have a grimoire or Book of Shadows? Do any of the names of these books have a certain vibe for you? Tell us about it in the comments below, or join us on our Facebook Group, MMC Chat.

Heard it on the Podcast - December 31, 2025

 

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. 

31-DEC-2025

S5E53: Recaps: Goals, Our Lives, and More

It's the end of the year and time to reset for 2026. Listen in as we share our progress on our goals and choose a Word of the Year for the next 12 months.

Listen to the podcast:   HERE

Here are the links from this episode:

• One Little Word
• Jon Gordon - One Word
• Christine Kane - No longer available

Our words for 2026 are: Illuminate, Devotion, and Finish. 

To learn how Cindy discovered her word "Finish" for 2026, check out her blog post here: Finding My One Little Word

If you liked this episode, you might want to check out these:

• October 8, 2025:  Richard Webster's How to Write Your Own Magic and Nuumerology Part 1
• December 17, 2025:  Richard Webster's How to Write Your Own Magic and Numerology Part 2
• December 24, 2025:  Choosing and Setting up a New Year Planner
• November 10, 2021:  One Little Word
• Some of our One Little Word blog posts: HERE

Don't forget to visit our Facebook group, MMC Chat. Let us know what you think! 

Taking a Deeper Dive into Self-care

This week we are talking about all things self-care on the blog and podcast. This is a subject that I could just talk and talk or (write and write) on and on about. I hope you got to listen to the podcast on Wednesday; I think that it is one that anyone could benefit from. Many people think of self-care as pampering yourself with manicures, facials and beautification. It can be those things, if that is what you need, but it can be so much more if you are willing to take the deep dive inwards.  

One of my favorite categories of self-care is personal development or self improvement. When I think of personal development, I think of setting goals, educating myself, and holding myself up to a certain standard or personal expectation. In the practice of selecting a word of the year, I give myself a goal to develop myself within the construct of the multiple definitions of that word. My objective for my word is for it to elevate my life in those areas. 

In keeping with the idea that the word is intended as a self-care tool, I recommend choosing a word that is unstinting. Any practice of self-development that does not uplift you is not good self-care. Pay attention to the programs, videos, tips and advice floating around out there on the internet. If it is not designed to nurture you, it could be harmful to your self worth. You may be choosing a program that encourages you to look inward with feelings of self doubt, shame, or feelings of failure to accomplish.

The past few years, I have picked words with my One Little Word project that encouraged me to change my behavior, reprogram some of my less favorable habits, and work hard to improve myself. This year, however, I wanted to choose a word that allowed me to pamper myself, rather than challenge my boundaries. I found that last year and the years before, I was inadvertently using my word to beat myself up about something that I was not. For example, I chose the word change in 2018. That year, I did encounter many changes in my life. Ultimately, I was disappointed when I came out at the end of the year as the same person, and I shouldn't have felt that way. Another fellow One Little Word participant mentioned that these types of words are abusive words, and I can agree! If someone else was telling me to be this word change, I would not appreciate their advice and I would be hurt that they would insist on me changing who I was. If they encouraged me to adapt, evolve, flex, modify or adjust, I might take their advice with a little hopefulness, instead of begrudging them.

With that being said, and all my resentment over my word Rise in 2022, I came to a quick and easy determination – I wanted a fun word this year! For 2023, I specifically chose a word that I believe encourages me to go easier on myself. I selected Enjoy this year as it has many facets, and I can incorporate it within many focal areas of my life: home, work, family, friends, and physical health, to name a few. I would like to think that Enjoy is an easy-going, fun word, but there is also room within the word to work on my mindset.

I am sure that you all are familiar with our segments on the podcast in which we reviewed Eckart Tolle’s “A New Earth”. One of the major takeaways for me was living in the now, and not letting my inner voice be overly concerned with what I could be doing instead of what I was actually doing. For example, sometimes I will be at work, knee deep in a special project and my mind will wander off into something else that I have going on at home. I work from home, so this can be a major distraction for me. I find my mind pulling towards anything and everything that is not the task at hand. I understand now that it is my ego deflecting and me not being fully present and accepting what I am working on. My mind is trying to focus on something else because I am not happy doing the task at hand. I know that not every single second of my day at work, for example, is going to be amazing and fun. That is just the reality of the job, however I can do what I am doing to my best ability and focus on what I do enjoy about the task. One of my least favorite things to do is review calls for my employees. I listen to the recorded call and then provide detailed feedback regarding their call. The act of listening to the call is tedious and sometimes boring. What I do enjoy about my job though, is helping people. I remind myself that by reviewing the calls and providing feedback, I am helping people and doing something that I love. This is already helping me by reminding me that it is a labor of love, just as someone who loves to ride horses and care for them might not like shoveling poop in the stalls, but they do it anyway. 

I want to curate the things in my life that I enjoy, not just with work, but my leisure time as well. I have been working in excess for the past 5 months, and I am in desperate need to dial it back. I am looking forward to honing in on what I truly love, spending more time with myself and by myself. I am excited to spend more dedicated time on my hobbies. This much needed rest, rejuvenation and introspective time is fully in alignment with self-care. 

Have you picked out your word of the year? Have you ever considered if any of your goals or word of the year were abusive, unrealistic, or counterintuitive, leaving you feeling unaccomplished? If so, I encourage you to take a more gentler approach and give yourself some grace this year. We have gone through so much, and we all need a little pampering on the inside and outside every now and then.

Finding My One Little Word

For me, this time of year is crunch time – December almost always finds me deep in wrapping up the current year by finishing out unmet goals, setting up my planners for the coming year, and doing a lot of ritual exercises that help me narrow down what’s important to me and the goals I want to set going forward. In addition to going on a crafting retreat with my besties, trying to get my Christmas tree set up and the house decorated, checking off my gift list (including any handmade items I’m working on), baking cookies, candies, and everything in between. Usually, the one thing I usually am not doing is trying to pick out my next Word of the Year, which you may have heard us refer to as One Little Word.

My word usually comes to me around October with a solid landing right in my lap that says, “Hey! You know I’m the word for you, right?” But this year has been very different. This year is the second anniversary of the last holidays we spent with my husband, Mark, and the first time we’ve tried to get back to a “normal” routine, whatever that may be. It’s been a struggle. In fact, I think this fall has been even harder than last year and the grief has deepened as his loss has truly begun to sink in. It’s been a tumultuous fall on top of that, with multiple misfortunes including a refrigerator that had to be replaced and costly repairs to both of my vehicles that have zapped both my patience and my pocketbook. I haven’t had much time to think about my 2025 word, “Okay”, much less start thinking about 2026. I even mentioned as much on this week’s episode of the podcast. Luckily, I had a plan.

Over the course of the year, whenever a good word came to mind, I would jot it down in a little notebook I carry to make note of all things connected to my word. By the end of November, I had 20 words on a list that were all good candidates for my next word. I decided that the best way to pick among them was to hash out each word in my journal so that by the time I had done them all, hopefully something would stick out as the clear choice. It did, and I was really glad I used the process the way I did because it helped me figure out what I really needed. I’ve decided to share it here in hopes that it might help someone else hash out their own list of words in the same way. The following is my internal debate about each of my words, and what I chose.  

• Joy: I think joy would be a fun word to have. Not too hard, but still stretching myself to find joy wherever I am at the moment. I have gone through the process of being here, now, in the present and of being and finding light. Because of those words, I learned I needed more balance and I am working on being okay. I feel safe most of the time. Isn’t that the first rule or step in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs?* I know I have not always felt safe, so maybe that is another word to look into. But joy calls me in a way that I can’t explain. I do have fun sometimes, but joy feels so much more spontaneous. It is also fleeting. You can’t have a constant state of joy, can you?

• Love: Going back to Maslow’s Hierarchy, I see that love is right in the middle between safety and esteem. That makes sense because you can’t feel self-esteem if you don’t feel loved. I would like to work on feeling loved, but I think that choosing this word requires looking at it from both directions and the other side of it is giving love. While I certainly do both give and receive love, it is tricky because it is hard to love properly without self-esteem, and it is impossible to feel self-esteem without feeling loved. It is a double-edged sword because they are so intricately tied to each other. This one is definitely a consideration because it is a word I need to explore, but it would not be an easy word. I really did want something fun and easy for 2026.

• Accept: Acceptance is the opposite of resentment. It’s definitely something I should work on. It would also be a hard word just because I need to work on it. Acceptance definitely flows from now, but it feels like a separate branch. Acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm – Eckhart Tolle’s Three Modalities of Enlightened Doing. I do want to take on this word someday, but not right now. I am not ready for it. I am still growing and still exploring, and I am not ready to accept the status quo until I fully understand what the status actually is. I’m not even sure who I am most days. So if I don’t understand who, what, where, how, and why I am, then could I ever learn to accept it?

• Open: I love this word because it feels like someone who is ready for whatever comes next. That is definitely somewhere I want to be in my journey, but, once again, not quite yet. I think that before I can be open to new things (love, adventure, acceptance, joy…), I need to close out a few tabs that are still open. I need to make room for new things. What is it they say? “You can’t ride in every direction at the same time,” right? And that’s the way I feel right now - that I’m being pulled in multiple directions at the same time and there is so much going on in my life that I can’t focus on anything new. I don’t have space in my life to be open to new things. I need to focus on the status quo. Perhaps in time this word will be a wonderful addition to my repertoire.

• Content: Content is a lot like accept. In order to be content, you have to accept what is. I’m getting there, and I think someday i will get there, but I feel like I’m not quite ready. I think I have to work through accept first. Maybe even something like this: Accept >> Content >> Open >> Love >> Joy. That feels like a proper order. But there is so much I need to do before I can get to accept.  So, content is not ready to be my word.

• Whole: What a loaded word! I want to feel whole. In fact, that is what a lot of my shadow work is about – regaining my sense of self…putting all the shattered pieces of my psyche and my life back together in one piece. I know I am not there yet. Maybe once I select this as my word, if I select this as my word, I will be. But something tells me there is a lot more work to do before I can truly become whole. Accept would likely come before. Maybe others, too.

• Trust: Trust would be another good word to work on before I go to whole. I have a lot of trust issues – mainly because my life experience has taught me that the people whom I should trust the most have been the ones who are the least trustworthy. Abuse and neglect will do that to you. I’ve been let down by adults who were supposed to protect me and prioritize my well-being, including my parents, grandparents, the school system, churches, and more. I can’t name a single person alive today whom I fully trust because everyone has either abandoned me, used me, abused me, lied to me, or let me down in some way. That is some real deep, dark shadow work to dig into there. So trust is right out. Maybe in about 10 years if the other words work out.

• Yes: No. I only toyed with this word for a hot minute. I remember Felicitas from One Little Word chose yes one year and it seemed like an amazing journey for her. I would love to have yes as a word, but it flows from open and maybe even from trust, but I am not there yet. I am too overwhelmed by everything else in my life to add the possibility of more. I need to do less. To take care of my current circumstances. Yes is definitely a no.

• Creative: Creative is a word I could get behind. I want more than anything to have more creativity and more creative time in my life. I feel so inspired by all the things I see, hear, and feel. I want to do. I want to express it in every form imaginable. But I don’t have time. Taking on the word create would be the equivalent of the word yes. It would mean adding more and I just don’t have the mental or emotional capacity to deal with it. So, while this word is very tempting, I think I should put it on the shelf a little while longer.

• Flow: Flow…smooth…transition…progress…relaxed…no stress. Doesn’t it sound idyllic? It makes me think of the peace in a good yoga practice or the progress of a river or stream. Movement. Gentle movement. Right now, my life has so much chaos that I can’t even imagine a state of flow. No, that’s not right. I can imagine it, but it doesn’t seem at all possible. Earlier in the year, I thought it might be the perfect companion to okay and I was almost certain it would be my next word. But this year has not progressed the way I hoped it would. Okay has meant that I’m barely hanging on – barely getting by – not the positive affirmation of a life well in hand like I’d hoped it would be. I’m not driving this bus right now, and I just want to get off because it is more like the movie “Speed” than a relaxing river cruise.

• Perspective: Perspective is everything, isn’t it? When you look at things with fresh eyes, everything changes. Negativity becomes opportunity, stagnation becomes rest. Overwhelm becomes a clear path. Clarity comes from perspective and over the last few years, I have tried to practice viewing my life and circumstances with the aid of perspective. It has been a good companion to many of my words, whether I realized it at the time or not. This could easily be a word I choose, but if I do not, it can still be a good companion word. A new perspective is often what I need most.

• Purpose: What is life without purpose? It feels like an endless drifting from one task to another without any meaning. I have felt like that for a long time. I suppose my purpose when the kids were young was to raise them well. When they were grown, I felt a small amount of purpose in working on my relationship with Mark and organizing cruises and craft events. But that felt shallow and I always believed there should be something more. I started to actively seek my purpose in the early days of this decade, but then life swung a wicked left hook and I found myself barely getting by as we dealt with COVID, my mother, Koy, and then Mark. If we go back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, we know that we cannot have or find purpose if we are just struggling to survive. I am still somewhere in the middle of that scale, and while our Modern Musings podcast and blogs are fulfilling and help to give me self-worth, I still need to work on the middle steps before I can actualize my purpose.

• Family:This is another of those fully-loaded words. It pairs with whole, trust, and love. It makes my heart swell when I think of my children and all the people I love. It also brings me down to my darkest lows when I think of all the people who let me down, shrugged me off, and left me to be buried chin deep in soul-crushing fear, isolation, and desperation. I keep trying to build a close knit family where we can talk about our problems, come to one another for help, accept each other as we are, but also learn from each other – listening to advice and growing into better people. But the more time that passes, the more distance there is between us. Maybe they just have their own lives to lead, but despite my being okay, I am not good and I do still need love, understanding, help, and companionship from my family. I’d like to work on that.  I just don’t know how successful I will be if my family is not willing to cooperate.

• Travel: Oh, how I wish my life consisted of going off to explore new places and then coming back home to embrace the serenity of my own refuge. I keep trying, but travel creates such chaos before and after, and I haven’t quite figured out how to make it more systematic and structured. I want to travel. I want to explore the world, both near and far. But I don’t want it to disrupt life, house, and home in the process. I would also love to have someone (or many someones) to travel with, and I struggle with that. Is it the same problem as my family issue? I can’t even seem to get anyone to go when I offer to pay for it. So travel would be a fun word to have, right there with joy, open, and content. I don’t think I can fully embrace this word until I work through a lot of other things first. I can still travel, and I fully intend to, but I don’t want to go all in until I am comfortable and can trust being on my own if necessary.

• Go: If ever there was a word of action, go is it. It is the opposite of be, still, relax, and accept. It also runs a bit counter to content and flow. I’m not really sure why this word crept into my list, and although it fits smoothly with travel, it feels counter to what I need right now, which is to regroup, gain perspective, slow down, analyze, get in alignment, and flow with life. I can’t do shadow work or take the time to figure out what I really want in life if I am always on the go. So, go is a word for later. For a time when I know who I am. When I have clear goals and an adventure mindset. Not now.

• Do: Likewise, do is sometimes the twin of go. It requires action, movement, and purpose. It would be unwise to just go and do without a plan, a destination, or intention, and as I’ve already mentioned, I lack this at the moment. In fact, I feel like that is what I have been doing for the past two years (or more) – just moving on auto-pilot, going here and there, reacting to whatever crisis is at hand. Putting out fires, rebounding from letdowns and catastrophes, and wading through the chaos that eternally abounds. If I am going to do, I want to do so with purpose – with intent. This will not be possible until I can get out from under the madness and mayhem that has been suffocating me for years.

• Be: That brings me to be. In all my complaints about doing and going without purpose and wanting to find acceptance and contentment, you might think my word should be be. That, perhaps, in the stillness of not doing and going, I could find my purpose and perspective, or that being open and saying yes to what is would be exactly what I need. But it is not so. I could have no peace or rest while the chaos still surrounds me. There is so much yet to be done, and I don’t think I can move on physically or emotionally until I address it.

• Safe: The second level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is safety. I have mentioned previously that I have struggled with feeling safe most of my life. I am constantly in a state of waiting for the other shoe to drop. For someone who has been traumatized by abuse and neglect, the fear of what might come next is very real, and it leaves you in a state of chronic stress. When there is abundance, you fear losing it. Happiness is always tempered by worry. There is no trust in anyone or anything because everyone and everything you have ever trusted in has hurt you – often intentionally. You feel powerless. People think I am strong. They tell me so. But I am not. My strength is all for show – a display to ward off predators. I am trying to grow towards strength and safety, but for now, I think there may be other ways to get there.

• Start: I recently changed my daily affirmation to “Start. Focus. Finish.” It has been a great affirmation for me because, often, what holds me back is just starting something. I am so overwhelmed by everything that needs to get done that I become paralyzed by the indecision of where to start. I’ve been trying to remind myself that the best way to start is to just start. As writers have creative blocks and artists stare at a blank canvas, so too do I struggle with making the first move. But the advice to all is the same – just do it. Write a word, even if it’s wrong – you can always come back and edit. Make a mark on the canvas – even if you eventually cover it up. Likewise, I must force myself to just get up and do one thing – even if I sit back down again, at least I have started. So yes, start is a good word and I have so many projects I want to tackle, and all it really takes is for me to take that first step – to just start.

• Finish: Starting projects is always exciting, but the most satisfying thing to do is to finish them. I’ve long since lost count of the unfinished projects piled up in my craft room and garage and overflowing into other areas of my house. I once started a list to catalog them much as Christen described in one of our podcast episodes. But even that was daunting. I look at these projects and I think to myself, “How wonderful it would be if this were done.” My task or creation would be complete and I could enjoy it. It would free up space and eliminate clutter. It would give me a sense of accomplishment – a win – to keep me motivated and to help me feel confident about myself. There are so many reasons to finish these projects and to choose finish as my word would be a constant reminder and motivator to keep at it.

This is why I believe that “Finish” is the perfect word for me in 2026. I do not need to start new things (although I probably will). What I need is the discipline to finish the things that I start – whatever that may be. I am hoping that following through to the finish will give me self-confidence to tackle some of the bigger issues in my life and move on to the place where I can feel safe and trust others, so I can feel whole and content, and I can love others well. That will give me the courage to say “yes”, to feeling open and creative, and see the world with a different perspective. That will bring joy, acceptance, and flow, and I will be able to find my purpose, travel, go, and do without being a burden to my family.

UPDATE January 14, 2026: Shortly after I published this article naming my OLW as "finish," I began my class with Ali Edwards and decided that "finish" wasn't quite it. Within minutes of starting the first video, I realized that the word I really wanted was "complete," as it embodies the qualities of the verb "finish," and also the adjective "enough." I realized that I not only wanted to complete past projects, but I also want to feel complete. So, if you hear me refer to my word throughout the year, that is why it will now be "complete" and not "finish."

•Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs states that you must meet the following needs in this order: physical, safety, love, esteem, self-actualization. I always seem to be stuck in the first two or three levels.

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1 "Maslow's hierarchy of needs," Wikipedia, last modified December 16,  2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

2 Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 295