A beloved Chicago Tribune columnist presented a challenge a few years back: Pick one word that will “guide you through the coming year.” Tribune columnist Mary Schmich’s one word was slower.
“All we have to do is breathe more slowly, and we know that slowing down is a way to see and hear and think more clearly,” she writes. “Slowing down, we make space to notice what’s going on, and noticing helps us make better choices.”
This practice of choosing one word doesn’t require a list of items to avoid or things to take on. It only requires one thoughtful word—and I suppose mindfulness—paying attention to that word throughout the year.
You (and I) have so many words we can choose. Mary writes that some words her readers say they are adopting this year include gratitude, agreeable, mindful, adapt, laugh, look, listen, move, be.
What word might God be inviting you to choose for 2023?
This message is excerpted from “Pick a word to guide you through the coming year” by Terri Lackey from the January 9, 2016, blog of the Women of the ELCA. Today we commemorate Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe, renewer of the church, 1872.
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