Ring the Bells…

We are halfway January and I still have not posted my ‘Word of the Year’ – it is about time I talk about it and, as the title of this post reveals, this time it is NOT a word!

First, for the ones who don’t know what “Word of the Year” means, let me explain in short:

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 stays with you that year and that will keep you focused in your plans and intentions, a word to use as a touchstone…

Six years ago, I picked my first ‘Word of the Year’ (2010; and my word was ‘smile’ 🙂 )

Now, several years and several words later, I have learned how powerful these words can be. It’s almost scary, how some words in some years turned out to be a burden. In 2013, for example, my word was Volhouden (‘Persevere’) and that word hit me right in the face during the year. Reflecting on it I realized that it was in a way a negative word… So for 2014 I choose a more uplifting and energetic word: Avontuur (‘Adventure.’) [You can read all about ‘persevere’ and ‘adventure’ in THIS POST]

So… was last year an adventure?
Some would say it was indeed because my beloved and I moved houses. Not a move within the city, not within the same province even, we moved to a place 100 miles away. From Eindhoven, the city where I’d lived for the last 30 years, back to my birth-region Zeeland. It was a life-changing move and we encountered many problems, but I would not call it an adventure. No! There was too much negativity and stress in my life last year to call it that….

I don’t have the need to recall, I don’t have the urge to share everything that happens in my life on the internet. It’s not that I don’t trust you, my faithful blog readers, it’s the fact that ANYONE can read this blog that keeps me against pouring my heart out. So, I won’t talk about all the problems we encountered but believe me when I say 2014 was just crap.

It was even thàt bugger, that I did not even dare to think about choosing a new ‘Word of the Year’ for 2015. No baby… this girl decided to live this year without “one word” weighing on her shoulders.

However, ‘blood is thicker than water’ and when I watched a concert of Leonard Cohen (Live in Dublin) on TV last month, the words of my favourite song struck me again.

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

(Anthem - Leonard Cohen)

There it was again, that last sentence that became my motto a long time ago.  But listening to the lyrics, the text earlier in the song especially touched my heart.

I journaled the first part of the lyrics on the last page of my Chronicles 2014, as a closure and I start the Chronicles of 2015, and the year, with the theme that I embrace for 2015.

… and I will.
I will stay positive.
My life changed drasticly,
but there are still bells.
Bells that I can ring.

I hope 2015 will give me the opportunity to at least “ring the bells that still can ring.”