Reflections on My Word for 2020
Did I dare?
I stumbled upon something in my journal the other day: the word DARE, which was the word I chose for 2020. I laughed — for a lot of reasons.
For one thing, what are the chances that I would’ve chosen a word like DARE two months before a pandemic that would keep us stuck inside, isolated, and relatively stuck for the next year-plus?
Secondly, I hadn’t even remembered that I had chosen this word for 2020. For the past five years, I’ve been faithfully choosing words and intentions for each year and while I occasionally lose sight of them, I always revisit them every month to help myself remain focused.
The last time I remember even thinking about the word DARE was…April, I’d guess. And somewhere along the way, I lost sight of it, entirely. Because what on earth could I reasonably and safely dare to do in a pandemic?
If I had chosen the kind of word that I normally choose, like LIGHT (2015), SURRENDER (2016), or PRESENCE (2019), I could’ve stayed true to my word even in the pandemic. But no, I had to choose a word like DARE.
When I ruminated on this, just before making the decision, I had chosen a few specific ways to express DARE throughout 2020. So let’s do an audit.
