Word of the Year

Serendipity.

This isn't my word of the year, but it's sure one of my favorites, maybe because it seems to happen so often in the life I'm observing all around. The dictionary, which sometimes has definitions you'd want to quote on Facebook, doesn't quite cut it with this word - "The faculty of making unexpected but desirable discoveries." Ugh, faculty? Boring.

And serendipity is anything but boring. Here's my definition - "An out-of-the blue meeting with someone delightful with a thought or action that can change your life."

I had one of those encounters at the post office in Sisters the other day. I'd been thinking the usual end-of-one-year-beginning-of-another thoughts and was trying to put them into doable words. Lots of words, as is my tendency. My friend, Lynn, listened for a moment, then told me what she does. She chooses one word, get that, one word, to use as a filter through which to gauge her actions and observations of the world.

(To give credit where credit is due, she got the idea from Christine Kane, a song-writer and life coach who writes way more comprehensively than I on the subject. Read her thoughts about the word of the year at http://www.christinekane.com/currentezine/ )

This seemed a much better way to greet the new year than a laundry list of to-do's. My mind immediately started thinking up words, phrases, whole paragraphs of pithy and helpful filters! Then I actually read Christine Kane's blog.  Ok, back to one word. I've been mulling it over for days; others apparently sit for a moment or two and a word plops into their mind and they're ready to go. Those of us of a more contemplative (read dithery) nature need some prep time.

I want to be more involved, do some stuff instead of just thinking or yabbering about it. Be a fluorescent, long-lasting, energy efficient light. (Although I really like the word "incandescent" much better.) To go beyond curiosity (my first word choice) and past action (second word choice), to this...COMPLETE v. finish, conclude, fulfill, end, realize, wrap up. Oops, it's supposed to be just one word. Well, that's what you get for reading Roget's Thesaurus before breakfast!

"Well done is better than well said." Ben Franklin