I choose it to be…

… an ADVENTURE.

I promised to tell you about my ‘word for the year’ in this post, so here you have it:
my word is ADVENTURE!
Let me explain how I came to choose this word…

First, let’s talk about what “Word of the Year” means.

At the beginning of a New Year, a lot of people make resolutions. I am not one of them… A few years back, however, I discovered that several people, instead of making resolutions, choose just one word and consider that word as a guide for the year. Just one little word, to symbolize the intention you have for the new year. A word as in a ‘theme’, a word that will keep you focused in your plans and intentions. As Quinn McDonald puts it: ” a word to use as a touchstone…”

Over the last years, I choose several words (and sometimes – most of the times – the word choose me… it ‘came to me’ by the end of each year so to speak) and I discovered how powerful these words can be. Last year (2013) my word was ‘Volhouden’ (“Persevere”) and I could not have imagined the power of that particular word… the word hit me right in the face during the year! I knew up front that 2013 was going to be a difficult year but it became even more difficult as I’d thought… for one, I suffered from a burn-out and thinking about my word made me feel even smaller because most of the time I had no energy at all to persevere… Looking back, I can see that ‘persevere’ is in a way a negative word… it’s a word that costs energy (which I did not have at all) and that forces you to “clamp your teeth” (in English ‘bite the bullet.’)  I literally did that, resulting in two loose and one broken teeth…

By the time 2013 came to an end, I was doing a bit better and I began to think about a new word for 2014… but I recoiled from all the words that came to mind. I did not dare to choose one word of all the ones that came to mind – because I was afraid that it would again be a ‘hard word’ that would slap me in the face. There was only one thing I could do: let go! So I tried not to think about it anymore and kept faith that a word would find me by the end of the year, or maybe even in January…

On Christmas day my “Top 2000 Blog Party” started. I concentrated on that, and enjoyed the positive vibe that came from working to/with the music.

The first page I made for the Top 2000 party was inspired by the Beatles’ song “Magical Mystery Tour” and just when I’d forgotten all about my ‘word,’ when I was filling in the title on the page with bright and happy colours, the word came to me. ADVENTURE. I know that 2014 will bring a lot of changes, my life will be put upside down for sure, but in fact life as a whole is no more than one ‘magical mystery tour’… a big ADVENTURE!

I tasted the word, while working on the page… ADVENTURE… it sounds positive. It feels right.

ADVENTURE is promising… it means going on an uncertain journey. A lot of unforseen things may happen along the way – I might have to fight dragons or wade through swamps – but ADVENTURE sounds like there may be something good waiting for me on the other end… after all, ADVENTURES almost always have a happy ending,
isn’t it?

I had already bound a new ‘Chronicles’ journal to use in 2014 – and as if I had forseen the positiveness of the word that I would choose, I’d created a bright and adventures  looking new book.

So, like all the years before, I took my “Word” and made the first page in my Chronicles art journal about it. I wrote about the feeling this word gives me and covered the journaling by writing the word in big, bold letters on top.

… it is February now, and I’m on my way!

Monday afternoon already when I finish this post… I’ve been on the computer long enough. I will use the rest of the day to play in my studio. Who knows, what adventures lay waiting for me there?!