A Word for 2025.
FROM THE DESK OF IELA GALIANO-WILLIAMS
Do you choose a word for each new year?
I started this tradition two years ago and have been surprised at how much I've loved it. This year, I sat in the post Christmas day pause, while my family chattered downstairs and my daughter slept in the other room, and waited to see if another word came to me this year. As I sat in the relative stillness, the word that rose to the surface was “release.”
This is a concept that came up in my last spiritual direction session with my own director and has continued to ground me since.
Recently, an extended family member shared their long earned parenting advice of, “if all else fails, lower your expectations…”
How often are we told to lower our expectations?! This certainly seemed backwards to me at first as I'm someone that dreams big, yet as I pondered it, I felt my shoulders relax and my body release tension. It led me to continue asking myself, where in my life am I holding myself to unrealistic expectations, or expectations that feel weighty instead of inspiring?
I feel an invitation this year to open my palms and release. To consciously drop my shoulders down and take a breath. To know that actually it is okay to readjust my expectations for a time. And to acknowledge that sometimes what I'm already doing is enough.
Let's see what 2025 brings.
As Jeremiah 29:11 says, “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
What about you? Have you chosen a word for 2025 or something you are hoping for this year? If so, I'd love to hear more about it!
Let us know in the comments below or send me an email here.