Word of the Year

I swear to God, if people don’t stop coming up with more crap for us to do I am going to lose it.  New Year’s Resolutions are apparently for lazy losers taking the easy way out- the B- kids of life.  Now in addition to those resolutions with their three-week shelf life, you also need to have a “Word of the Year”  What the Actual Fuck.  Right now you are either totally aware of this phenomenon and probably have your  “Word of the Year” written on your family chalk board or you are as confused and irritated by this concept as I am.

In a nutshell, the idea is that you should think about what is wrong with your life  er  what you want to change this year and then boil it all down to one word that embodies all your current discontent and future hopes and dreams.  Yep, our entire year is supposed to be guided by ONE word? Yea, no pressure or anything….

Well, never one not to jump on a fad bandwagon and oh I have the cheetah print pants and grunge flannel shirts to prove it… I decided to try out a couple of words and see if I can latch on to a concept and miraculously change my life.  Let’s check out the contenders of 2018 WORD OF THE YEAR! 

Fuckitall– Ok, I was told this couldn’t be my word because it is a phrase and “a tad negative”.

Hope– eh that seems a little too naive at this point doesn’t it? It is hard to feel hope when those doomsday preppers seem to suddenly look pretty smart… Hope has its place of course, but to use it as a guiding word seems out of touch with reality. Moving on..

I think it should be clear to us all that I am not quite sunshine and rainbows.. I need a word that is more me without being too “me”.  Yet, as the words occur to me I just as quickly dismiss them.  Too passive, too much work, too aggressive, too cliché….

• Breathe
• Resist
• Fierce
• Determination
• Unstoppable
• Sparkle

But why limit ourselves to English words especially when there are a plethora of words that really just sum up emotions perfectly.

backpfeifengesicht–  This is a delightful German word that translates to “face in need of a punch” which really hits home anytime I turn on Fox News…. I don’t particularly need a word reminding me just how punchable faces can be and how acting on that impulse is rather frowned upon…

torschlusspanik–  This is another Bavarian gem. It means “closing gate panic” but basically it is the feeling we have when we realize our lives are speeding ahead and we haven’t accomplished anything worthwhile.  How is that for positivity? I feel it when I find out someone who just won a major award is younger than me.  Thank God, Lin- Manuel Miranda has three more years on me.  (Thanks all, for pointing out that when he was my age he had already written Hamilton…)

tsundoku– Japanese word that describes leaving a book unread after buying it or the pile of unread books. I am a little murky on the correct way to use it which probably disqualifies it from the list because I don’t need to spend 2018 sounding like an ass. It is the concept of it that I embrace.  Don’t we all have something in our house that can be described as tsundoku? We bought that fancy kitchen gadget with the intention of cooking those fancy gourmet meals and then life took over and we just cook the same damn things we usually do?  Someday, spiralizer… someday.  Maybe you bought that yarn and those needles intending to finally knit scarves for loved ones.   For me, tsundoku is something we wanted to get to…something extra, but then everyday life got in the way and so it sits ‘unread’ in a pile.

Weltschmerz–  “World pain”  Yikes… Very appropriate, but really dark.  It is a great word, but I am not sure it should be our guiding force.

Hmm, this is devolved into a list of Andrea’s Favorite Words. Let’s refocus (hey “focus” is a pretty good word). So in order to choose a Word of the Year apparently there are three questions you should ask yourself-

1- At then end of 2018 what do I want the year to have looked like?

2- What do I need to change about myself to bring about those goals

3- What is the single word that encompasses that necessary change?

You probably thought that by the end of this rather rambling post that I would have come up with an amazing, insightful, and motivating word of the year.  It was going to be so freaking profound. Sorry, to disappoint, but I don’t have a word.  I have no idea what this year will bring. A wish, a dream, a vision for the year can all change in the blink of an eye. I don’t know if I want to accept the changes that will happen or ferociously resist them. Whether I want to live in the moment or dream for the future. To be steady and strong or gentle and serene. Chart my own course or peacefully go with the natural flow of our life. What I want for myself may run contrary to what I want for my kids. Guiding words like balance, patience, gratitude would be great MOM words, but aren’t we more? Don’t we want more? Yet, sadly words like explore, dream, conquer simply ignore the realities of our lives.  It is hard to explore and conquer when a pile of laundry teeters on the brink of avalanche and the kids expect to eat dinner every darn day…

Is there a word that encapsulates both the vision I have of myself as a loving mother and a supportive wife and the goals I have as person? I don’t have an answer especially not one that can be summed up into one omnipotent word.  I suspect none of us do, because this constant tug between wife/mother and our individual selves seems to be universal to all of us- something we all struggle with.

Hmm “fuckitall” isn’t sounding too bad after all…

Do you have a Word of the Year?  How did you choose it? 

3 Steps to Choosing Your Word of the Year

Your Goddess word of the Year

And I bet you thought I was joking about the cheetah print and grunge flannel…..