My 2024 One Little Word is BEAUTY. What's yours?
2024 marks my 17th year to choose One Little Word as a focus and guide for the year. This practice has added so much to my life that I encourage everyone to choose a word. You can read more about why I chose BEAUTY in this blog post.
But why choose a word? What's the point?
Well, why not?
I don't know what your One Little Word will bring you exactly.... and yes, some years the connections and impacts are stronger and more evident than others.
Like the year I chose SKY as my One Little Word. No way could I have known going into the year that I would take a picture of the sky every single day. And that by simply taking that moment to look at the sky, to point and click, that I would slow down, feel more peaceful, be in touch with wonder, and receive from the universe many new ideas and inspirations. What an abundant year!
On the other hand, the year I chose the word MYSTERY is still a bit mysterious to me. I don't have anything concrete to report about my experience with my One Little Word that year. But maybe that's the point? I allowed myself to sit in mystery, to not have everything all figured out, to write without some grand purpose or project in mind.
I am certain I was changed by the experience of that year...I just can't tell you how. It's a mystery!
And how, out of the millions of words, how do you select just one?
You know how sometimes you just know? It's like that. Ask your brain to give you a word, any word...close your eyes and let it float up from the center of the center of your heart...I've found it's best not to overthink it. Trust yourself. The word is there already, like an apple ripe and ready to be plucked from a tree. There's really no way to mess up...just choose a word and GO.
Hey, maybe GO is your word! I don't know. But you do.
And then it's just a matter of remembering what word you've chosen. You can do this by writing it and posting it on your bulletin board or refrigerator or bathroom mirror. You can journal about it or ruminate over it or Google it. Our minds are so easily distracted it helps to keep your One Little Word regularly showing up. In my years of this practice, I find that it's like many other things: the more you put in, the more you get out.
To get your started, here are some posts from folks in our community about selecting their 2024 One Little Word (see how wonderfully varied these words are?!):
Tabatha Yeatts - OPEN
Michelle Kogan- COMPASS
Marcie Flinchum Atkins - GROW
Patricia J. Franz- AND
Rose Capelli- EXPLORE
Linda Mitchell - WORLD
Hey! Those words might also be a wee poem!
open compass
grow and explore world
