My One Word for 2015: Hope #OneWord365

For the third year in a row I am picking my one word for 2015.  This was inspired by my friend Melanie over at Only a Breath.  Melanie, in turn was inspired by Alece at OneWord365.com.  The idea is to come up with your “theme” for the year, or as Alece puts it:

Forget New Year’s Resolutions. Scrap that long list of goals you won’t remember three weeks from now anyway. 

Choose just one word.

One word that sums up who you want to be or how you want to live. One word that you can focus on every day, all year long.

It will take intentionality and commitment, but if you let it, your one word will shape not only your year, but also you. It will become the compass that directs your decisions and guides your steps.

Discover the big impact one word can make.

Here is my one word button which I made, with a little help from Melanie:

Why did I pick hope? I had named 2011 my “year of no fear“.  2012 was a year of extreme fear, which led me to pick “courage” as my one word for 2013.  Once I learned to conquer many of my fears I needed to gain some self-confidence, which was my word for 2014.  I learned not to second guess myself and to own my decisions.

Hope is defined, according to Merriam-Webster as:

to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true.

Lately our family’s forward momentum seems to have stalled a bit.  Art is still having  a hard time finding a steady job and the rent in our area just keeps going up.  I worry sometimes that we will never be completely back on our feet.  I need to learn how to regain and hold onto my hope.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land

And on the strangest sea,

Yet never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

By: Emily Dickinson

What is your word for the new year?

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