HAPPY Sunday!! Oh, and Happy New Year. 2017!! We (most of us) made it through 2016. It was a near thing, it seemed sometimes, and a bumpy ride. But. There it is; we shall try again.
CHANGE—CONNECT— ENOUGH— CHOOSE— INSIGHT— WEATHER— MOTION—BALANCE— DELIBERATE —All of these link to past year “Word of the Year” posts.
I have found that “the word” finds me. I can not simply be reading someone else’s word, and run off with it as my own. The lofty promise of some zen-like list of my goals doesn’t work for me in providing a word. M
y word tends to come like the fog, on little cat feet. And, like a cat, can not be deterred or distracted (by bigger, grander words.) Try as I might, once it arrives, it keeps pestering, stepping over and onto and around, and I am helpless to change it.
I could try to, I know. I could write an essay on some other word, but as I did that, THE word would keep trying to interfere. Therefore–
TRY. My word is TRY because that was the one that wouldn’t stop. But, when I took a peek at it on Dictionary.com, it seems like a pretty incredible three letter word as word of the year!
TRY–to attempt to do or accomplish: Try it before you say it’s simple. To test the effect or result of (often followed by out): to try a new method; to try a recipe out. To endeavor to evaluate by experiment or experience: to try a new field; to try a new book. To test the quality, value, fitness, accuracy, etc., of: Will you try a spoonful of this and tell me what you think of it? To put to a severe test; subject to strain, as of endurance, patience,affliction, or trouble; tax: to try one’s patience. To make an attempt or effort; strive: Try to complete the examination. Give it the old college try, Informal. to make a sincere effort: I gave it the old college try and finally found an apartment.
TRY offers a lot of self-love, as well. TRY it. It isn’t saying you have to make something happen; it isn’t judging you for missing; you just have to TRY. Give your best shot. Don’t feel you have messed up by 
eating that doughnut, or not running the extra mile. Just try to paint, or to learn some French, or to figure out how to ….
Try says you have permission to forget your reusable bags when you head to the grocery store. Next time, you’ll try to remember them. You don’t have to throw up your hands in defeat of ever sticking to a budget, or saving more, when you realize that your goal of spending less on your clothes this year was blown on that one really nice pair of shoes. As long as tomorrow comes, you have another chance to try to get it right.
These all seem like positive, forward moving, active thoughts…. They require being present. And, to continue trying to figure it all out…a goal for 2017 if I have ever heard one! Only the best to you and yours in 2017! Be well!
No resolutions from this woman. But a WORD for the year, that I can do. This word came, as it does, in the same organic fashion I have grown to expect. It pops up and says “Hi, I’m your word: You get to deal with it now!” It won’t leave, and it is noisier than the other words. So, I always go with it. Introducing—
These are previous years words–click on any to read that years essay.
More Notes From the Refrigerator Door 