* for tHis year *

It's called "One Little Word."

It's a class by scrapbooker Ali Edwards; it's a concept that, for some, takes the place of New Year's resolutions; it's a thought-provoking exercise...especially if you're drawn to words (and goals); it's pretty fun for me to do every year. I noticed that Studio 5 did a segment on it last week, so it's getting somewhat "mainstream." Still, I like it.

I'm always inspired by Ali's New Year's practice of choosing one word to guide her through the year ahead. I've thought and thought about word possibilities that describe my hopes for 2013. Last night at the Aggie basketball game, I got a little distracted as I used my phone to find Ali's website and read through this year's list of words that have been chosen by other people. So many good words - I love most of them. But I'm pretty picky and had a hard time finding the perfect word for me. For one thing, it has to be a verb. To me, this is about action. I thought and thought - trying to NOT let the fact that I would be making it public determine my word. (I mean public on this blog...meaning twelve people, most of them family, would read it lol.) After much thought and "word play" I came up with the following list of words that appeal to me:

Persist

Arise

Rise

Write

Grapple

Breathe

Shine

Reach

After a bit of back and forth with myself, I narrowed my list down to two words: rise and breathe. Both have particular meaning for me right now and express what I feel I need to do this year. But I have chosen rise for my word. It's admittedly a weird word choice - I don't even see it in the illustration below. But it perfectly expresses my focus for the next twelve months. I have to say: rise is not about getting up early, because I already do that because of insomnia. It is about making those early morning hours more productive and worthwhile. And, there's so so much more: rise could include things like sit ups and also things like cinnamon rolls. Yes, it's a good word.

* Rise *

Here are some words that other people have picked. Maybe you can find one here that you like.

This is a Wordle Word Cloud that Ali Edwards created using people's words from 2011. Love it.