For the past several years, I’ve chosen a word for the year. Some years it has been a few words or a phrase. Other years, just one word. Out of a quiet moment of journaling and meditation, a word comes across my heart and it feels like, “Yes, this is my word for the year.” It is the word I carry with me as I go about my day. And what I’ve noticed for the past five years is that this word takes up residence in me. It stretches me, calls me to focus, reminds me of what is most important. I “become” that word.

For 2011, my three words were: soften, strengthen, and forgive.
For 2012, my three words were: silly, sensual, and connections.
For 2013, my word was: light
For 2014, though I didn’t blog about this, my word was: focused
For 2015, my phrase is: enwombed in delight.

Lately, I’ve been waking up much earlier than usual. I’d look at the clock and see yet again 3:30 a.m. It isn’t insomnia. It’s the Quiet calling me. It’s the Divine calling me. And I decided that I should listen!

My word for the year of 2014 was “focused.” And in 2014, I did a lot of meditating on death and dying. Nothing gets us more focused than sitting with the reality of our impermanence. We do a lot to avoid thinking about the fact that we and all those dear to us will someday pass away. We do a lot to keep from feeling what arises when we get uncomfortable with impermanence. But when we face our own mortality, ironically we can really live. We can get really focused on what matters most. We can live in this very moment with a profound sense of focus and intention.

Such a focused posture in life still calls me in 2015. Lately there has been this ache within me that has wanted my attention. It’s a deep ache that needs more attention than I can offer it with the informal meditation practices of “mindfulness in everyday life” – it has needed the spacious attention of quiet “formal” meditation and prayer. Time in the darkness, quiet, and stillness of the early morning.

The other morning, early early!, I was writing in my journal. It was raw, real, and focused. Sometimes I write as though the Divine and I are having a conversation. That day, God “wrote” to me and asked, “What are you asking, My Love?”

I wrote, “The picture in my mind and heart of home – of contentment and belonging.”

God wrote, “Even deeper, Lisa.”

And then I asked, “Show me what I need (for my own self, for my family, for my work in this world).”

Then an image came to me. And God wrote, “Enwombed. That’s how you want to feel. That’s how you want your children to feel. That’s what we want for this world.”

Enwombed. Enwombed in delight. When I think of “delight”, I see light and tenderness. I sense a deep contentment and connection – to our hearts, our dear ones, this world, and the divine.

For me, this is my prayer, my “word for the year”, my focus:

May I know how deeply I am held, nourished, surrounded by and enwombed in delight.
May I be a space for others to experience a sense of feeling held, nourished, surrounded by and enwombed in delight.

May it be so.

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DEAR READERS, take a moment and pause to ask the Divine within you, “Show me what I need.” And allow an image, phrase, word to come to you. You’ll know its resonance within you when you hear a soft, “Yes. This is it.” Let that be your “word for the year.” Let it be the image you carry within you as you go about your day…and see how it focuses you and nourishes you in loving, embracing, and living your precious life.