Words for the Year

Every year I pick a word (sometimes two) as my talisman for the year.  I decorate a plain, black 9"x12" journal with the words and as much glitter glue and paint as I can pile on it.  It's a tradition started years ago when I lived in Santa Barbara and discovered my first word while driving through a residential area. When I spotted an old, rusted RV with the word "Jubilation" painted across the back, I fell in love with the word and chose it as my first journal word.  Or, perhaps, it chose me.

Usually I start trying to find my word in mid-December and have time to contemplate several words before settling in to one or two.  This year, I've been moving too fast for the past several weeks to think about my word. So I made a date with myself today and thought I'd use this post to focus my attention.

Now I'm sitting here with my journals circling me as I think about 2012, a leap year, and what words call to me.  I often note words in the back of my journal so I'm flipping through the old ones and the following possibilities appear:

• Exuberance -- joyous vitality
• Reflection -- being a clear mirror of spirit and joy
• Quest -- an adventurous seeking for something of value - I like the connection to question
• Mandala -- a symbol of sacred peace and the reunification of self
• Zest -- passion for life
• Dayenu -- Hebrew -- it would have been enough

After much tea and thought, the choices for words to guide me during 2012 are "quest" because I want to continue learning, exploring, seeking new experiences that help me better understand the world and myself ... and "dayenu" because I want to remember every day how overwhelmingly grateful I am for all that I have been given and to remember that even a fraction of it would have been enough and that I do not need more.  There seems to be a lovely tension between these two words.

FYI: here are the words for the past few years ... and if you decide to choose a word or words, I'd love to know what yours are.

• 2011 - Temenos, sacred space. Carl Jung used this same word to refer to the inner space deep within us where soul-making takes place.  Hallelujah -- as in the words from Leonard Cohen's song, "nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!
• 2010 - Beauty and Equanimity (complete with a mindmap of things that nourish equanimity)
• 2009 - Miksang (Tibetan for "good eye" and a photography process that involves a deeper way of seeing, and Abbondanza - joyful abundance
• 2008 - Chrysalis -- a place of deep transformation which cannot be seen until it emerges
• 2007 - Autopoiesis -- continually re-creating and organizing self in relationship to surroundings
• 2006 - Joy and Dreamway ... the title of a book by Robert Genn
• 2005 - Emergence
• 2004 - Querencia - a calm and quiet, yet powerful, place of safety

What Leap Will You Make in 2012?

It's only one extra day, but there is something special about a leap year.  It seems so full of possibility.

Last leap year, I took advantage of the Sadie Hawkins' tradition and proposed to a man who didn't say "Yes."  At the time, I thought it was devastating, not knowing that the Universe had a totally different leap in mind for me.  It makes me a little hesitant about trying to plan or predict the leap coming in 2012.  

But I know it's coming.  I see tender possibility sprouts shooting up all around me ... art, a possible move, a new workshop.  But, one thing I've learned along the way is that the Universe is full of surprises.  The sprouts I see may or may not take root, but I'm sure that sprouts I can't see will leap out of the ground, shouting "Surprise!"  They might be delightful surprises or challenging ones, but, either way, they will offer me new lessons and possibilities for growth.

At a ritual gathering on solstice, we were given the opportunity to let go of something that no longer serves us by writing it on slips of paper and burning them.  I let go of the illusion of control.  Maybe that's the great lesson of leap years ... do what we may, we can never control anything except our reactions to what comes our way.

What possibility sprouts do you see for the coming leap year?  And, how do you cope with the inevitable surprises?

May all your leaps in 2012 have a soft and gentle landing in delight, love and abundance.

About this image:  "Coyote the Teacher"

The theme for Timberline Gallery's new show, which opens January 3, is "animal totems."  I will be entering this work which was prompted by a close encounter with coyote last summer.  While driving through Yosemite, I spotted coyote by the side of the road and stopped to take a picture.  I expected to only get a quick shot or two ... but he stayed there calmly posing for shot after shot. 

A friend later told me this means he had a message for me.  I'm not sure I got the message but I love his face and the ravens that were playing in the background.