Another Day in the Country
Just a word
© Another Day in the Country
The last few years, I’ve been choosing a motto for the year, like “We’re all in this together” in 2014, “Bloom where you’re planted” in 2019, and “Hope springs eternal” in 2022 — all good things to be reminded of and emblazoned on the front of a yearly photo album I put together.
Truthfully, I always run out of allotted pages (100) for those books by June — there’s so much to be remembered — so I make the book into a two-volume set now. In life, a lot of things are happening.
In 2024, the slogan for the year was “Making tracks.” It was inspired by photographs I took of duck footprints in the mud. They appear on the cover of last year’s Volume 1.
Well, it’s 2025, we’re already a couple of weeks into the year, and I haven’t chosen a theme.
Celebrating the new year in California, my daughter said, “I think we should choose a word motto for the new year.”
She was ready. “Acceptance,” was the word she chose. Her husband had his word, too: “hope.” Dagfinnr and I looked at each other. We were still equivocating and had to think.
Come to think of it, “equivocating” is a good word for my grandson right now. He’s filling out college applications and wondering what career path to choose. It’s a pretty significant year in life when you graduate from high school.
Jess said her phrase for 2025 was “75 alive,” which reminded me that her birthday was coming up. All of this prompted me to ask some of my friends what word they’d choose for their motto.
“I’d choose ‘next,’” Phil said.
She had a rash of difficult medical issues in 2024 and is ready for a new chapter.
I joked with her and said that my word for the beginning of the year was “wait,” which is very hard for me to do.
Michaela said that her word for 2025 was “smile.” She wants her smiles to come more quickly and more easily this year.
Our friend Des texted us that her word for 2024 had been “perspective,” and while she would keep focusing on that skill, she chose “intention” for 2025.
“That’s a good one,” I said.
“Oh, yes,” Jess said. “I like ‘intention’ too. Maybe I’ll add that word. I want to think about my intention for this year.”
Des answered, “Help yourself. Meanwhile, Happy New Year.”
“And to you,” I fired back. “Happy New Year for me means being alive and well, able to pay my bills, do a little adventuring, grow something, laugh a lot, read a good book, have friends.”
“That’s a great list,” my sister said, “but what about your word?”
Would you believe that Dagfinnr and I are the only ones, in my family who haven’t declared a word for 2025?
I don’t want to choose a word that someone in my circle already has picked. I’m funny that way. It needs to be a word that just comes to my mind. Original, I recognize it, and it fits, right off the bat.
While “Making tracks” was my theme for recording life last year, “gratitude” was my word and the recognition muscle I exercised.
I easily could use that word for another year. There are so many things to be grateful for. Hopefully, expressing feeling, even noticing gratitude, has become a habit. It’s such an important, healing emotion to strengthen.
Amazing what a word can do!
Amazing reminds me of “wonder,” which is something I always feel while taking pictures or just being out in nature. It was wonderful to get home safely last Saturday night and wonderful to have a skilled hand at the wheel of a wonderful vehicle.
All this snow we’ve been experiencing has stopped us in our tracks, but it’s beautiful. Even photos I’ve taken from my porch are amazingly wonderful. There’s that word again.
It’s been wonderful to have electricity and heat during this storm. Neither of those have failed us so far.
It’s wonderful to have a pantry, even though we’ve been emptying shelves during this week of confinement.
It even was wonderful to get home and find in my sparse refrigerator a pint of whipping cream that hadn’t been opened — which meant it was still sweet and I could make creamed peas to go with our baked potatoes for supper.
All in all, it’s wonderful to be alive and enjoying another day in the country — maybe even wonderful to be still snowed in. And come next week, it will be wonderful to get to a food store and beyond. Hey, maybe that’s my word.