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I've thought of some words for my 2025 (Renaissance/Rebirth, Perseverence, Hopefulness, ...), but i don't know which one to choose. Choosing a word for a whole year seems both an easy thing to do and hard (Doing so is tricky because you may at first say "I can easily pick a word, it's easy-peasy😉😁". But after some time, you may say: "Dammit, doing this isn't as easy as i thought😔😭").

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Just listening to your essay prompted the word "loving." Then, as I started to comment here, the word "detachment" came to mind. Over the past few months, I've been pulling into myself, guarding myself after discovering my husband's political direction. Not only was I shocked by his bursts of anger toward me when saying something counter to his goals, I was also angry that I didn't realize just how strongly we both believed in certain ideals. With this manipulative and absurd U.S. election out of the way, I suddenly felt really detached. It no longer matter what the world outside my house was doing. The life inside my house was weltering in anger and broken trust as well as the latest flu bug going around. As we both hacked and coughed, sniffled and sneezed our way through our days, I felt it was time for me to forgive and cozy up to the man who has made a lot of wonderful things possible for me. We've supported each other through all kinds of ridiculous stuff over 42 years. This was the first real rift in our love for each other. So, I've chosen "Loving" to be my word for 2024 and "detachment" to be the supporting word. In order to be loving toward someone so close, I need to be detached. There is someone deep within, way past the political beliefs and goals. That person way in there is the one I love and 2024 is the year I'll bring him out and closer to me. Thank you, Charlene, for this essay.

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