What’s The Word?

January 15, 2025 I By Katie Cox, Executive Director

Happy New Year,

As the new year approaches, inevitably there is discussion about whether you are the type of person to make a new year’s resolution or not.  And let me tell you, people have their STRONG opinions on the matter.  I, on the other hand, tend to blow in the wind, persuaded by each person and their fervency on the subject.  I would never be one to make lists and look at them every morning and feel positive or negative depending on how I am keeping up with the list, but I do like the idea of thinking forward and being optimistic and positive about how I move into the next 365 days.

This year, a good friend of mine revealed that she finds a word to live into each year and that seemed simple enough and pretty effective.  

What I figured out as I moved quickly toward the new year is this: finding a single word, or phrase (my friend’s word last year was hang out) is actually quite hard.  It reminds me of a saying my husband often quotes:

I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. - Mark Twain

The new year came, and the new year went and truth be told, I hadn’t yet figured out my word.  Not to say I didn’t have lots of thoughts and ponderings about the year ahead, but I had given myself a bit of a task and it was not yet complete.  Then this weekend happened. 

I had the opportunity to walk Mushroom Trail in Pine Street Woods with an 18-month old.  Have you done that lately, walked in the woods with a child?

She was really interested in one stick, and then another stick. She poked at a rock. Ate the very fine layer of snow (with a little bit of dirt). She took off up a trail not caring if I followed. She squatted down to examine some moss.  She walked through the puddle.

People who know me would tell you, I walk (run) through the woods fast.  I also spend it as my thinking time, typically almost all up in my head solving the current issue of the moment, or rolling the next creative project around like a stone in a rock tumbler.  My mind tends to constantly work, often I solve a lot of problems on my walk/runs but because of this,  I don’t take the time to look and wonder.  And that is just what you do when walking through the woods with a small child.  The pace slows, the awareness of every rock and stick is heightened.   You remember that there are times in life to move quickly, but you see, hear and experience a lot more when you do slow down.  

So my word for the year. 

PACE

This word will serve to remind me of the importance of pace. At times it will remind me to be efficient and keep swiftly moving forward. But also, it will remind me to move slowly, more deliberately, take in each moment, enjoy the people I am with, stop thinking about what is next and yes, a bit cliché but be present. The world and the people in it are a treasure, and while here, we should take the time to enjoy it.

What would your word be? 

In curiosity,

Katie