CONNECT: My 2010 Word of The Year

Ever since I began looking at embracing a single word to focus on for the year, I’ve been finding a bit more meaning to do things that I do. Granted, it’s never easy to choose THE ONE WORD. And, the lessons I’ve been learning through those words had been tough all around.

I mean, imagine when I chose TODAY as my word-of-the-year in 2008 (my first attempt at this), my biggest lesson was: “Never take a day for granted.” This was especially highlighted when my dad passed away that year, and it was the first time that I had to face the reality of that lesson. As in, it really, really hit home then. Hard.

So, with a tough 2008, choosing my 2009 word-of-the-year was even tougher. That’s why when the word BLISS insisted on being chosen, I was hesitant. It felt like a challenge bigger than what I could manage at the time. And, as I mentioned in this other post, my WOTY was certainly challenged when just at the start of 2009, I lost my company, my work, and an online identity that I’ve been living with for over 3 years (at the end of the year, I lost another one I’ve worked hard on for over half my lifetime). The blow was rough and I had to go back to basics. But, I was grateful for having “bliss” as a guiding word for me. When making life choices and planning a career change, I worked with my main lesson from the year: “Trust your bliss.” (or perhaps, “Bliss is within you, not outside of you.”) It was a time when I had to strip things down to the core and learn to trust that if do things that I love and things that make me happy, I will find the right way to heal, to inspire, and to succeed. Sure enough, even though it was once again a rough year, it was also a time when I was most attuned to my happiness. My bliss.

Now, on my third year of WOTY, I end up with the word CONNECT. My first verb. One thing that struck me about this WOTY is that in the same year that I’m trying to think more along the lines of “stillness”… (that’s why there’s that Gandhi quote in my journal’s first pages: “There’s more to life than increasing its speed.”) – I get an action word to focus on. Twists always make things more interesting, yes? Especially since “connect” isn’t exactly the top of my priorities lately. In fact, I’ve been disconnecting a lot in more ways than one. That’s why at first, I felt this word didn’t really fit for me. But then, after pondering on it for some time, I realised that, perhaps, it was actually one reason why it fits.

And perhaps, there are other reasons and ways…

… learning what connect really means to me – and what it takes to connect….

… connecting my many varied interests, experiences, and expertise…

… to find connection with mind, body, and soul… and the world around us…

… who and what do I connect with?….

I could probably go on.

And, guess what? If I had any doubts whether connect was really supposed to be my word of the year or not, this is what I saw when I first arrived back in Australian soil after The Big Trip (not that I needed a sign or anything ):

Ah, yes. Don’t you just love it when that sort of thing happens?

Surely, it will be one interesting year to see how it works…

Image Notes:

• Top Image: The first pages of my current journal/diary/organiser. I did something similar for last year’s WOTY.
• Bottom Image: Our connecting bus from Perth International Airport to the local terminal, on the way back to Adelaide.