Thank you to all of you readers who responded to my post last week with your words for 2025. You inspire me! Here’s what you sent me:
For 2025, my word represents a desire to accept new things and, moreover, to allow in (at least for consideration) the regular, daily things that so often spark a negative reaction and/or desire to push back and away. Fear of embarrassment in social situations, the frustration/panic/anger that comes from disagreements with those I love, the worry that something won’t work out or the disappointment and chronic overthinking when something has not gone as I believed it “should” have. A message I wrote on my refrigerator reminds me... “What would happen if you were brave enough?” My word for 2025 is Embrace! To take in or on with enthusiasm and gladness! To choose openness and curiosity over defensiveness and rightness! As of this writing (01/04/25), it is working great!
Deborah, Beldenville, Wisconsin
*****
I have never had a word for the year until this year! As I was sitting in the DRC listening to the head chief of the village, he was pleading for more support for widows to start a small business and more support for orphans to attend school because of the great changes that he had already observed in his village from the current supported widows and students. It came to me what an “opportunity”! And God spoke to my heart and said 2025 is going to be a year of great “opportunity.” So, for the first time in my life I have a word for the year: Opportunity. It’s kind of fun and exciting to see what God has in store for 2025!
Ace, Cataract, Wisconsin
*****
Listen is my word this year. Listen to the voice of God. Listen to those around me who are speaking. Listen to the sounds around me. Listen to “whatsoever is true and pure and lovely”.
Sharon, Orlando, Florida
*****
I have been eager to share my word with you for almost a year!
I have thought often of PERSPECTIVE ever since I came across a prayer of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:12. Jehoshaphat was facing impossible battle odds. He said to God, “We are powerless. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” When I found myself praying that same way a few times, it came to me that I needed a different perspective. And that was also the time I realized the word was the one I would pass on to Tamara for 2025. I still badly need that word—that view.
Helene, Roseville, Minnesota
*****
My word is: DISCOVER
After several years of caregiving for elderly parents, and grieving the passing of those beloved parents, I am now looking at a year of rebuilding and restructuring. I want to discover new things in my external world as well as discover (or rediscover) personal attributes and interests. By doing this, I will map out the beginning of my next chapter!
Ann, Minneapolis, Minnesota
*****
Expansion
Jean Paul, Roseville, Minnesota
*****
Time to thrive!
Shantell, Maple Grove, Minnesota
*Has My Blonde Life inspired or entertained you? If you wish to toss a tip into my writerly coffers, here's how you can do it: @Tamara-Schierkolk (Venmo) or $TamaraSchierkolk (Cash App)
*Names in this blog have been changed to protect my family, neighbors, and friends in the neighborhood, and in a nod of appreciation to the beloved Swedish author Maj Lindman, I’ve renamed my three blondies Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka.