My 2025 word[s] of the year

and a recap from 2024

Hi, friends! Last week, I was planning to share more about my 2025 reading queue, but I decided to rest instead. I hope that having that extra bit of space in your inbox brought a small bit of peace for you as well.

This week, I’m diving into my word[s] of the year, and I just want to remind you that you don’t need to feel pressure to pick one just because I’m sharing mine (or because anyone else is sharing theirs). 2024 was the first time I’ve ever even thought of choosing a word of the year, and it came to me naturally. The same is true for 2025 — I have found my energy and attention drifting in a specific direction and wanted to create some intentional space to follow it. This feels gentle and generative for me in a way that new year’s resolutions never have, but that may not be the case for you, which is 100% okay.

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I chose autonomy as my word of the year for 2024 because I felt like I was losing my mind, and my self. I wanted to feel like a person outside of motherhood again, to focus on my own needs and wishes a bit more, and to be able to come back to my family feeling refreshed and able to enjoy our time together.

It was difficult to get a lot of time entirely to myself in my home, and leaving isn’t always a great option for me. I had hoped to spent some evenings at our local library, but by the time my husband gets home from work, I’m too tired to think of leaving the house most days. Taking the kids elsewhere poses its own difficulties, and I also really missed spending time with Jon, just the two of us.

So I decided to focus on what I could do, and what felt accessible to me. I leaned into reading, prioritizing it alongside my knitting and crocheting to help me connect to my interests quietly and making it easier to avoid doom-scrolling. I began looking forward more and more to my twice-monthly craft club with my friends. I found ways to make my home a bit more functional and cozy. We started reading together as a family before bed every night, and my husband and I planned a few days where the kids were with a sitter, and we got to be alone without worrying about doing anything productive. I said no to a lot of things I knew I wasn’t ready for, and yes to things I knew I was.

In many ways this has been a really difficult year, but it's also been one of the happiest years of my life. I feel more grounded, more whole, more joyful than I have… maybe ever. I feel like I know myself, and what I want and need, a little better. I still struggle with getting overstimulated and overwhelmed, and I still have to balance my energy carefully, and I still have plenty of things I want to work on, but especially here at the end of the year, I’m noticing that I have been feeling so much more content and grateful for my life as it already is.

And yes, there have been plenty of good things that have happened throughout the year, but I feel like my ability to recognize and really enjoy those things has stemmed from turning inward and asking myself things like:

What do you need? What do you want? What brings you joy? What makes you feel grounded, and calm, and content, and like yourself? How can we get more of that? How can we prioritize that? How can we get rid of what's in the way of that?

And those things, for me, are actually pretty simple.

Making space for those things and noticing where I already had them has made all the difference. I feel more capable and hopeful after this experience, and I feel excited to know that I can continue to carry that with me.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

And now, after a year spent turning inward, I'm ready to begin turning outward toward community and connection.

I've been writing on and off about community since I started this Substack, but I now think that in many ways, I wasn't really ready to try to integrate into community more until I took that time to really explore what I need and want, and to learn how to start prioritizing those things.

Post-election, it immediately became clear to me where I wanted to shift my focus for the coming year. I’ve seen a lot of people writing about this already, but I really believe that we’re collectively going to need each other moving forward. Really, we always have. And I want to find ways to be more connected with the people I already know and love, as well as my larger community.

I am still (like many) grieving and frustrated and feeling like I'll never be able to do enough, and I've gotten to a point where I'm recognizing these things and saying, "yes, and…"

Yes, I am only one person with certain limitations, and I can at least do this one thing right now.

Yes, I wish I had more resources to help myself and others, and I have a lot that I’m thankful for and able to offer.

Yes, there are so many difficult things to deal with, and I'm not alone.

Yes, this world is full of pain and grief, and I can find and create beauty.

Yes, so many awful things are happening, and I can see the good that is here now.

I'm not despairing.

I’ve found so much hope recently from seeing how others have created and sustained community in their own unique ways and connected with those closest to them, and that’s what I want to focus on as we move into the new year.

I’ll share more about how I plan to try to lean into my word[s] of the year in 2025 in ways that are accessible for me, and update with how it’s going as the year progresses.

And for everyone who has been here with me since last year or who will be joining me in the next one, thank you. I wasn’t sure when I started writing here how much I’d have to say or who would want to listen, and I’m grateful to not just be shouting into the void.

I’ll be back next Tuesday with my End of December post — I’ve got a lot of magic to share. ✨️

Did you have a word of the year for 2024? I’d love to hear what it was and how it went for you, and if you’ve chosen one for 2025. Or maybe you have a different kind of goal you’d like to share? I’m here for all of it — I hope to see you in the comments. And as always, feel free to share if this resonated with you.