I Wish You More

Every year on or near New Year’s Eve I choose a word for the year. Then I commit my word, along with my hopes for the new year, to paper. To me, writing and journaling about my chosen word feels like a mix of therapy and optimism. It also sets the tone and shapes my vibe for the year ahead. I’m pretty intentional about it, and spend time on the choosing and the way I see it showing up in my life. I use colorful pens, have categories like professional, personal, long range goals, and all the usual stuff you’d expect at year end. I write from the heart and reflect when I look back at previous entries.

It’s most definitely not a resolution. I gave up on those when I realized they never resulted in changed behavior. I consider this exercise more about self reflection and personal optimization, like an opportunity to manifest or dream about what I’d like to see ahead of me.

This year I was telling friends I was gonna choose MORE. As in more of the good stuff. More fun. More laughter. More joy. More love. More light. More happiness. More adventure. More knowing. More … living every damn day with grace and peace and inner lite. One good friend was all in, loved the word and what it meant to me. Another was all, “oh, hell no.” She was concerned that MORE felt like a bit of a Pandora’s box situation, an invitation for whatever fresh hell could unleash itself upon me and the world in general. After Covid, divorce, and chaos, she found it … risky. I chuckled, because to me I was really steadfast in knowing I wanted MORE of the good stuff.

But I saw her point.

So instead I chose, READY. But was sure to say, I am ready for more of the good stuff. Ready for more fun. Ready for more laughter. Ready for more joy. You get the picture, I basically used more, but hid it behind ready. To be safe. Just in case, like a karmic fabric softener sheet, not really needed but, why not?

Anyway, a few days pass, my journal is written and fabulous, and I’m feeling good about my choice and my thoughts and dreams for 2022. Then two days ago I’m cleaning my dining room and come across a beanie I was gifted by a print vendor just before the holidays. I remember laughing when I opened it because it was the second hat I was gifted by a printer and told a coworker I had no idea that it was a thing to give out hats at the holidays. I didn’t think much of it, barely looked at it, and figured I’d give it to one of my kids. Like an old piece if paper I tossed it in my bag and forgot about.

Well, turns out that hat it MAGIC. Somehow it ended up in my dining room, but that is not what makes it magic. What makes this story magic, is when I picked it up I immediately started laughing. I was laughing out loud, alone in my house, because it turns out that hat is not a hat, but a sign. There it was, right in front of me—More.

Somehow I chose a word, and that word turned around and found me. It’s magic I say, pure magic. I’m not sure of much, but I know a few things for certain. The universe has my back, and I’m READY for MORE of the good stuff, for all of us.