The Word: 2013

Simply, Imagine, Appreciate and Shine.  Four years and four words.  The world has once again circled the sun.  The clock has struck.  It's time for a new word.

I entered this year with a sore throat; the persistant remnants of a December cold.  It's a reminder that I am not fully in control.

I've been to the doctor (I have an in with an ENT).  He couldn't find anything wrong with my throat.  I'm on a trial of sudafed and antibiotics.  He suggested that if this doesn't clear then I'll need endoscopy to look for, you know, cancer.  Now the chances of me blowing with a cancerous lesion immediately after a cold are slim to none. This is likely viral or bacterial or a combination of the two.  Or it could be reflux or allergies or a number of other things. But there's that word.  The big "C".  Another reminder that I am susceptible and fragile and at the mercy of the Universe.

Then I was left alone for a bit too long.  Long enough to contemplate what I would do if I actually had cancer.  My first thought?  I'd like to make a quilt for each of my children and knit Christmas stockings for all of my potential grandchildren.  A physical reminder of my love; something to remain after I'm gone.  And I thought, perhaps, cancer or not, my word for 2013 should be "create."

But then I thought some more.  And I realized I am not afraid to die.  However I am not yet ready.  There are people who need me. Here.  Now.  People who need help growing.  People who need tending.  People who need to be nurtured.  And thus came The Word for 2013:  Nurture.

To nurture means to care;  for my family, myself and my home.   It means to love and to extend this love to my community and the world.   It means taking what we've got, what's already available to us, and growing it.  And that's just what I'm going to do.

Perhaps next year's word will be "blossom" - a natural extension of nurture.  Then again, perhaps not.

For now I am simply looking forward to 2013.  Here's to a happy, healthy prosperous year!

xo.