Week #5: Transform your writing and your year with one wild word
Find your focus for 2024 with this journaling practice
Last week I told you about my annual New Year’s tradition of making a list of 101 Wonderful Things about the year that just passed, and how my journaling practice supports that gratitude marathon.
This week I’m sharing a New Year’s tradition that my friend Grace invited me to participate in:
Find One Word to guide you through the coming year.
Grace and I used Susannah Conway’s instructions in her “Unravel Your Year” practice to choose our words for 2024.
But I first heard about this bit of word magic years ago when I heard Terry Tempest Williams talk about how she asked for one word to guide her.
And that word unfolded into a journey of discovery, and her book: Finding Beauty in a Broken World.
To find my word for 2024, I brainstormed about qualities I want to bring into the New Year with me. I wrote in my journal about my wishes and goals for my professional and personal life (which in my case are seamlessly interwoven) as well as my hopes and dreams for the collective (the community of plants, animals, creatures, and people, that populate our planet).
I came up with words like HOME, APPRECIATE, PATIENCE, and BEAUTY.
And then, I took the question to my dreams.
For several nights in a row, before bed, I wrote my questions in my journal and fell asleep asking my dreams to show me one word that would guide me to my highest and best purpose in the coming year.
On the third night, a word appeared. Literally! It was printed on a sock!
It wasn’t the word I’d expected. But more about that, later.
Today, I am inviting you to discover your word through journaling and dreams.
In Lesson #5 in the Make Your Journal a Book of Transformation Course, you’ll receive instructions and a guided meditation to help you find your word for this year, and more.
But first, speaking of the new year:
Commit to your writing practice in 2024
Join the Stay (Cozy) at Home and Write Virtual weekend writing retreat.
And now,
Welcome to Week #5 of the subscription course
This week we’ll transform our writing and our year, one wild word at a time.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to This Dream Is a Poem to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.