word of the year

2022– Have at it.

Ok, maybe not THE most positive and uplifting way to welcome a new year, but we’ve been burned latelyšŸ˜¬ We made it to the other end, once again! A December full of Christmas photos! I hope your holiday was fun, merry, joyful and safe! I wish for your 2022 to be fabulous! I hope all the things you want and all the things you wish for are within your grasp!

ABUNDANCE is my word of the year….and not in a “CASH MONEY” or some religious reward kind of way, which is what the majority of Googling the word came up with. The word appeared three days ago as I was vacuuming. It always just jumps into my consciousness. (And wont be budged or put aside for some bigger, better word, thank you very much).

As I sat with it, I think it is more an understanding and a peace with what IS. I have the ā¤ļøloveā¤ļø of my husband, the love of my children and granddaughter. I have health, I have a job. I have excess. There is a car to spare when one is in the shop. I have enough blankets to stay warm if the power goes out. I have plates and mugs and forks enough to avoid doing the dishes today if I choose (I don’t have and never have had a dishwasher–you can’t miss what never was) I do have a washer and dryer within steps of my bedroom, so I can do laundry at my convenience, not that of the laundromat. I have the warmth of two cats on my lap. I have the love and companionship of my friends and family.

I am not feeling this word as a call to minimalism, (see above desire to avoid dish washing) or to spend my year only shopping thrift stores, making do or doing without, although there is a certain quality of satisfaction with what IS in the word ABUNDANCE. (I will of COURSE want that new, GORGEOUS purple polka dot fabric for my stash!!)

December 31, 2020 Christmas Photo A Day!
—some of my previous words of the year, collected in last year’s blog—

I wish for you good health in the coming year— get your jabs, believe in science, wash your hands, wear your mask, and BE KIND.

2000 and 2021
My nose is always in a book… (oh, the smell of a new book!!!)

Remember to follow me on Instagram, to visit rteest42.com and purchase some of my art! I love to take the time each December to Look With Eyes That Seeā€¦. I hope my visions have entertained you!

(and yeah, I hit send too soon, an hour or so ago.)

December 31, 2020 Christmas Photo A Day!

2020 is on the way out. Wipe your slate smooth and clean. Be safe and healthy in 2021!

(To my email only subscribers, I hope you can see this video on your email…if not, do visit the website. It’s a cleansing breathe. AND, because why not, “I” can see the video playing perfectly well, if it doesn’t seem to be doing so … look to the right column on PC/laptop and view via Instagram, or find it on Instagram and follow me there..rteest42!

Word of the year….is ….(drumroll, please!)

The word, as usual , jumped out at me without my being conscious of choosing it.

(As is typical, I could not tell you what my word of the year was for this past year until I looked it upšŸ˜‹… hey, 2020 has been a LONG YEAR )

Past words:

2009-Deliberate

2010-Balance

2011-Weather

2012-Motion

2013-Choose

2014-Enough

2015-Connect

2016-Change

2017-Try

2018-Mindful

2019-Focus

2020ā€“Clarity

After this last year of Covid, (and who knows how much longer before life returns to whatever ā€œnormalā€ means)…the word satisfied jumped in my head, then the lyrics to Hamiltonā€”ā€œyou will never be satisfiedā€ and there I amā€”-singing to myself…. and…

…so the word wants to be SATISFIED, and it will not be satisfied if supplanted with any other word. (Hey, I donā€™t make the rules.)

…but, wow! What a word!

That idea may need to be turned on itā€™s head, to make it so that really the idea is ā€œTO BE SATISFIEDā€ (with life as it IS). To be satisfied with what you haveā€”(but not so much so that you accept things as they are, IF there is a desire and ability to change, it should not come off as a fatalistic acceptance and acquiesce, either). NB. I attempted to supplant it with Appreciate, but that was a non-starter.

…it should not be a settling for, but more an appreciation for what you have….being satisfied with life the way it is because this is what we have, and well there are a lot of things one can change in oneā€™s life, but a pandemic is not one of those things.

I have been one of the lucky ones, whose life has been constrained but not ruined, damaged or changed in any but the most surface ways…. no travel, no hugging, no visiting family, but also no job loss, no sickness, no loss of loved ones.

I have worked the entire pandemic and instead of doing things after work with friends or family, I come home to my husband and cats.

And satisfied means not being envious of bigger houses, better yards…. but loving where and what I have….

Christmas Photo a Day, December 31, 2019

I KNOW Barbara Walters’ voice is in your head as we get ready— Say it with me– “I’m Barbara Walters and THIS is 20/20.”

Word of the year.

2020 hindsight… .people always say, well, if only I had known this would be the result of that, I’d have done it differently, … that idea that being able to see into the future would change the decisions you make as you go through your life….

But your life, your life experiences–all of them, good bad or indifferent– have put you in the spot you are standing right now, with the people you are surrounded by, loving, working with, raising…. so, if you had 20/20 hindsight….would you use it? Of course, if you had known that I-95 was going to be backed up 6 miles, you might have taken 288 instead, right? Then your boss wouldn’t be on your case about being late again.

But, what I mean, is for the big stuff, would you use it?

When I was 13, my mother, who had abandoned me when I was three, convinced my newly teenaged rebellious self that I was wanted once again. That my strict grandparents only wanted to deny her more than an every second Sunday visitation, and that I would have freedom and love and A MOTHER if I moved back with her. I believed her.

Instead, I became Dobby the House elf and the primary caregiver of my 3 year old brother, and disappointed my grandparents beyond belief. They still loved me till the day they died. (I don’t recall getting the love part, or the mother part.)

In hindsight, though, using that 20/20 vision…. I can’t say I would change a thing. Because I met my daughter’s father on the bus-stop going to high school in sophomore year. A bus stop I would have never been on, going to a school I probably wouldn’t have attended. Then, I wouldn’t have my daughter. I might have had other children, but not HER. And that would mean I would be missing that experience, that child that I love, that woman who I adore with all my heart. THAT I can’t imagine.

And if I hadn’t had her, then, maybe I would have gone to a different college, and not met friends who are still my besties 35 years later. I could had a different career, in a different place, and met different people, and not had the chance I had when I met my hunny, and if hadn’t met him, I also wouldn’t have my granddaughter, and…. It’s not even close, is it?

LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHILE YOU ARE BUSY MAKING OTHER PLANS. (john lennon)

So, how to tie this into a word of the year?

CLARITY. That is the word of the year.

clarĀ·ā€‹iĀ·ā€‹ty | \ Ėˆkler-ə-tē  , Ėˆkla-rə- \ the quality or state of being clear.

How I see it being used this year is somewhat amorphous … unclear… I know… It’s a work in progress, even to define…

2020… we are heading into the Roaring Twenties??

But it is important that we (I, it’s MY word of the year) see things clearly. Be certain that decisions and opinions are coming from a place of clarity and informed thought, rather than knee-jerk reactionary behaviors. This can be as little as if I am posting a Meme, have I done due diligence? Do I know that the website it may take you to isn’t simply collecting your personal information for purposes that may not be honorable? I don’t want to misinform, and I DO want others to have clarity of information, because decisions need to be made this year, and we need to be eyes wide open and we all need to see clearly, no matter how uncomfortable clarity of vision may be.

So, CLARITY. What do I want and how to get there, visualized? Like I have said in years past. the word appeared, as it does, without my prompting– I will go with it.