For the past few years, something magical happens in September and October of each year…words that I know I need to pay close attention to start to come alive when I hear them. These words become my words for the next year, and an entire new adventure comes to life that I never would have expected. How does this happen, you ask?
Many people choose a word for each year. In the journaling community of which I am a part, this is a sacred part of setting up a new year of journaling and planning. I began this practice at least five years ago. I knew which word to use because I would keep seeing this word everywhere. The process of choosing the word came naturally. At first I felt it was mechanical, as though I chose the word because other people had chosen it and I could see where the word fit ‘nicely’ into my life. And then, I began to see how placing focus on the word throughout the year created something pretty cool. Interesting events would show up around the word. I mean, think about it; if you choose the word ‘inspire’ and you think about the myriad of ways that word can be used, interesting things might begin to happen, right?! Yes!
After a couple of years, I began to see multiple words popping into my vocabulary, onto billboards, into conversations with people in my community, in books and articles I was reading, lyrics of music I listened to, or even in recipes! I learned to pay attention in the fall of the year to synchronicities occurring around language. I would note the words that seemed to pop up everywhere, and then in December, I would look at a list I had created and read each word, look up its meaning, and feel if the resonance of each word fit with my own sentient intelligence in that season of life. If it did, I kept it. I have always limited the word amount to six. This way I can thoroughly explore each word and track how each word enriches my life and that year’s experience. I’ve also said to friends that the words ‘use me’, like being the poster child for the meaning of that word and all of the beauty that can occur around it.
This year, the new words for 2026 began ‘popping in’ yesterday, Oct. 12th. What does ‘popping in’ mean? Yesterday’s experience was from a conversation. Someone in my group during a call was speaking about equanimity. When they said the word, it was as if fireworks began, and I spoke the word to myself, literally chewing on the 5 syllables, and how delightful the word felt in my mouth as it was spoken. Then, the visual slideshow kicked in. This is another way I know a word is ‘mine’ for the year! I immediately experienced a scene with my grandfather from when I was little, hearing his broken English (he was Assyrian), when I said something that was rather profound in front of my mother. My grandfather said to my mother, “She born that way”, meaning he saw me, and saw the wisdom of the child I was. The word equanimity came into that slideshow from my past because of the ‘way’ my grandfather spoke. He said very little, but when he spoke, he always showed such equanimity-which means, “mental calmness, composure and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation”. My grandfather was full of equanimity…always! In hindsight, I think we were similar and he saw this in me, even at a young age.
Equanimity is a great word for 2026, don’t you agree?? We could all use some of this in our lives! If you think about it, this word could really serve you. Listing all of the ways you feel you show equanimity, how you have observed it in others, how it can encourage you daily if you focus on it, to live a fulfilled life. You could write a poem about how this word has served you, an acronym poem, where each letter of the word can be a characteristic of being in equanimity, there are so many thoughts on how this word can be used as part of your ‘moral compass’.
This is but one of the words on my next list. It is a wonderful game to play. Looking at this adventure/game as a vibrant activity brings out curiosity, playfulness, and a love of good language and how it can enrich our lives! These meaningful words of the year can also become art…from a vision board of pictures depicting the word, to drawings of what comes up for us emotionally as we work with the word, to meditative designs we might draw whilst thinking about the word and all of the wonderful experiences we have had around the meaning of the word.
There has been a new realization that each word we choose is a field unto itself, a landscape or setting, where many wonderful things can occur. Each time we work with the word, or experience the word being used, the field expands, and our experience of it as well. We sow new seeds of living through these beautiful words/enlivened fields. When looking from this perspective through the fun of using language in this way, we can open up into many new possibilities of enriched life experiences! If you haven’t had the experience of choosing a word for the next year, perhaps you might try it?! It is amazing how these living fields will begin to reshape our lives into fields of vibrancy in a time when there is also strife.
Try it on…choose a word…chew on it, see where it takes you in your imagination…see where it takes you to show you possibilities of what richness you can exist within!
