Preparing for 2023

What a wonderful Christmas season it has been. I’ve been able to celebrate with family and with friends; I’ve sung carols loudly, like Charlie Brown and his friends with mouths open wide and voice lifted high; I’ve found times of meditation and solitude, singing and worshiping quietly to myself and to my Creator; I’ve eaten (more than) my fill of delicious food; and I’ve had the pleasure of giving and receiving meaningful gifts with those that I love, and those that I’m learning to love even more.

This post-Christmas evening, with one more meal consumed, I’m ready to settle in and devour one more meal before I go to bed, ma in her kerchief and I in my cap. I’m going to spend a little more time with some gift books given to me this Christmas, starting with one in particular.

Daughter number two, Zoe Mary Patricia, (named after her grandmothers), nailed it when she discovered one of her presents for me. “Other-Wordly” by Yee-Lum Mak, illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley, opens with these words:

Other-Wordly started when I stumbled across the Portuguese word saudade: “the love that remains”; a longing for someone or something that you have loved and then lost…” 

Upon opening the pages I was enthralled. Yee-Lum Mak seemed like a kindred soul. Here was someone who felt the same fascination with words and language as I did. The author “found that every language has names for the odd and wonderful, for the unexpected things that have meaning, for the parts of our lives that are ‘other-wordly.’” 

I love the idea that there are single words in my native language, or in the language of other cultures, that carry such depth of meaning that they take several words, phrases, or entire paragraphs, to explain. 

I’m not sure what 2023 is going to bring, but I’m hopeful that I can experience saudade. It sounds both beautiful and frightful. I don’t plan on searching for it, but now that I have a word for it, I wonder if it will come my way? 

Carol tells me that I need to choose a word for 2023 that will be the focus of my vision board that we are encouraging all of our members to work on during January. Thanks to Zoe and Yee-Lum Mak, I have a fascinating, challenging list I will be choosing from.

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What thoughts come to mind when you hear the term “vision board?” Carol has been doing these for years, and I’m still not sure what to make of the idea. Share some thoughts with our  creative community members.

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