My one little word... 2012

How do you follow up your 2011 word when you chose "alive," and then were challenged with all kinds of ways to be alive?  The truth is, I could have chosen any other word, like joy, or hope, or praise, and I would still have been diagnosed with breast cancer.  All of those words were a part of my life, even though they weren't my chosen word- they just helped create that sense of what I was looking for- feeling how alive I am.  So picking one word, just helps us focus our attention.  Its like picking up a lens that helps us sharpen the image, and capture a snapshot of life through the filter of our word.  Then watch as your word shows up in your life, draws you in, chases you down, and opens you up and leaves you changed.

To read more about the idea of picking one little word for a year, read here at Ali Edwards.

My word this year, practically hit me over the head.  It was a rather "dark" day of brooding and reflecting and wanting to climb out of it.  But how?  With so many unknowns suddenly swirling about, and no known answers, how does your heart settle?  How do you anchor yourself in the midst of turbulence?  On that day my daily devotion gave me a seed of an idea.

"God gives us his light in an instant, allowing us to know all that we need to know.  No more is given to us than is necessary in his plan to lead us to perfection."  Saint Catherine of Genoa


She goes on to say: When we're lost or confused, we want to know now- right now- how to find our way toward understanding.  No one likes that feeling of helpless floundering about, especially in dark places!


God freely gives us the understanding we crave... but with just enough light to take the next step.  Just enough light...


Later that same day, I was reading Anne Lamott's book "Bird by Bird," when the same message was driven home in another way.  In her chapter on short assignments she provides these thoughts from E. L. Doctorow who once said "writing a novel is like driving a car at night.  You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."  Ann goes on to say..."you don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination, or everything you will pass along the way.  You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.  This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard."

I hear the message again.... just enough light to see a few feet ahead.


I go to look up the definition of the word light and see 15 different ways in which the word can be used-

a- something that makes vision possible
b- a source of light, i.e. a candle
c-spiritual illumination, i.e. inner light or enlightenment
d- a medium (such as a window) through which light is admitted... etc.  The list goes on...

 My word found me.

This is where I want my lens to be... simply so that when I walk through the valley of darkness, my eyes are trained to see and feel and experience all things "light."  

Happy New Year! 

Have you chosen a word for 2012?  Will you share with in the comments what it is?