I Hope Next Year is Illuminating

By Carol Woolum Roberts

Since the year 2014 I have come up with a word to focus on for the upcoming year, and some of those years I created a vision board for the year as well.

Did you know there is an actual National Vision Board Day?  It is the second Saturday in January, which this year is January 8^th.  My plan is to gather with some friends and create some vision boards together. You can find out more here.

If you don’t know what a vision board is, click on these links to my personal blog from 2014 and 2015 here and here, and it will give you an explanation. 

If you read my blog posts, you will see my friend April Lee is the one who got me started finding a word and creating Vision Boards.  We got together last year and created some vision boards together.  You can read about the process she went through creating her 2020 vision board on her blog here.

As I started thinking about what my word for 2022 might be, my friend, Diannah Fields-Brown, posted this on her Silver Tree Reiki Facebook page.  (Diannah has just opened up her Silver Tree Reiki studio here in my town of Kellogg, Idaho).  Here are some of the words she shared:

As darkness increases in the days leading up to solstice, I am finding comfort in solitary contemplation, taking time to reflect on the events of the past year and set intentions for the year to come. I ponder what I need to do in order to be the best version of myself in the year ahead. And I wonder what my color of 2022 should be…

One of my dear friends chooses a “word of the year.” I love that. One word that works as a guide post; a one-word mission statement. I have done it in the past and found comfort in focusing on that one word like a mantra in times of stress and confusion. This year, I am choosing a color. I wasn’t planning to have a color of 2022. None of my previous years have had an official color, but 2022 is asking for it. To me, words, feelings, names, ideas all have a color. 2022 is “burnt umber.” Representing both earth and fire, its warmth is super appealing to my mind’s eye on this cold winter day.

We need to do the work, and the work can be hard. We need to have fun as well. Lighten up, make it easy sometimes, find joy in the tangible. I was not able to find a “burnt umber” lipstick, but I did find a “spiced terra-cotta” that will fit the bill. I am going to surround myself with hues of depth and warmth in the coming year.

For 2022, I am going to accelerate my fitness goals, love with greater intention and less expectation, and sport the burnt umber like a beacon.

Wishing you warmth and depth and humor over the holidays!

After reading this post, I was so intrigued by the thought of a color for the year ahead.  But how do I pick a color?  I immediately knew I wanted it to be a yellow. 

Then I remembered a conversation I had with my friend Rachael Krusemark.  Rachael is the art teacher at Kellogg High School (where I worked for many years), and I spent many hours after school creating works of pottery in her art classroom at the school.  I remember her talking about how excited she would get each year for Pantone to reveal their color of the year.  And she also does an assignment with her art students.  She has all of her students guess the new color for the upcoming year.  They have to look at the previous colors of the years past and then think about what is happening in the world today as well as what the world needs.  Then they have to do a little research on the psychology of colors and what they invoke, etc.  They do a little write up citing the evidence they gathered. Some of her advanced art students wanted to mix their own colors to get the hue just right.  Rachael said some of the students came close to the 2022 color…Very Peri.

When I started thinking of a color, I went to the Pantone website, and started looking for the yellow that seemed to fit.  It didn’t take me too long to find it.  I just had to look at the Pantone 2021 color, which was actually two colors, Ultimate Gray and Illuminating.  As I read about why these two colors were chosen, I loved why the yellow Illuminating was chosen: 

Illuminating is a bright and cheerful yellow sparkling with vivacity, a warming yellow shade imbued with solar power.  Illuminating is aspirational and gives us hope. We need to feel that everything is going to get brighter – this is essential to the human spirit.

When I looked up the meaning of the word Illuminating, here are some of the words I focused on:

“helping to clarify or explain something”

“providing insight, clarity, or understanding”

“to enlighten intellectually or spiritually; enable to understand”

So for this year’s vision board, I will be using a color and a word to dream big for 2022! 

I encourage you to take some time in the next week or two.  Focus on a word.  Focus on a color.  Or be like me and focus on both.

I invite you to grab some poster board, old magazines, a glue stick, and anything else that might help create a visual board of your dreams for the upcoming year.

You may be surprised what you find and create. 

If you do come up with a word of the year, a color of the year, or create a vision board, share it in the comments below.  I would love to hear and see what you have chosen and created.