.....another word

Yogis,
Boy how these years fly by. It feels like it was only weeks ago that I chose ‘responsibility’ as my word for 2022 and here we are, already sitting in the newness of a year named 2023. Time once more to select a word of the year.

First, I look back. Did I wear ‘responsibility’ well? Yes and No. I switched to toothpaste tablets in glass jars, reduced my use of ziplocs and paper towels dramatically, planted more natives in the garden and began composting. Yet the Amazon boxes continue arriving and there is still much work to be done on the amount of plastic I can’t help but see in each Tuesday’s recycle bin.

As the New Year’s ball descends, we aren’t meant to drop last year’s word. Carry it forward and continue fine tuning but start weaving in the thread of an additional energy you want to embrace and exude. I will still wear my previous years words of kind, fierce and blooming but will now add another layer.

My word of the year is ‘beauty’.

With so much turmoil in our world it can be easy to tell ourselves we live in an era defined by war, anger, divisiveness and sorrow. Yet it’s the other way around. We live on a planet that is always astonishingly beautiful and choose (unconsciously perhaps) to layer on ugliness.

Our culture and its multibillion dollar marketing campaigns convince us that if we want to find beauty we must create it…..and spend money to do so. Makeup for our faces, the perfect outfit, colorful throw pillows, manicured lawns or those new dishes. Though, without us lifting a finger, beauty is already here. Everywhere. We walk out the door each day to towering trees, white fluffy clouds against a brilliant blue sky, flowers in every imaginable color and oceans so vast we have yet to discover all they hold.

How amazing it is that we get to be part of this all!

My intention this year is to notice this beauty each day. To look for it……photograph it……thank it, and let it be my prevailing view of the world. But not only the easy stuff like a rainbow or the sunrise, but the bit more challenging like gray days, the old trusty teapot, the well-worn jacket and the human who holds completely different views than my own. Beauty is in everything and everyone…….if we choose to look for it.

Seeing beauty is a practice. Slowing down. Intending to see it. Looking for it. Every day.  I will add this to my life’s cloak this year.

What is your word? I would love to hear it!

What a beautiful world we live in,
SARAH