my one word prompt {2.23}

The last few years, I’ve anticipated these monthly prompts with nothing but delight. A veritable rubbing-hands-together...What’s it gonna be?! The anticipation of what I might do and where I might go with my word has almost always felt joyfully anticipatory.

This time, though… I’ve been dreading this go-round.

Okay. Dread might be dramatic.

Less eager, maybe?

Uncertain, for sure.

It’s not me. (Of course not!) It’s not the practice. (Absolutely not.) It’s…the word! (Yes.) This word is challenging! (YES.)

Kym put it perfectly in her comment this week: This is a BIG word . . . for such a little word. (Agreed!)

It’s not in a nice little box. It’s not a simple and tidy word. It’s like I said a few days ago…

I’m beginning to think that might be part of the point?

(Maybe.) (We’ll see.)

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It makes writing prompts kinda hard, though. I figure I could —

: : Dust off the old prompts. See if they fit. (There are a few favorites I like to repeat.)

: : Set prompts aside and see how that goes. That’d mean looking back at ‘Where did my word take me this month?‘ instead of looking forward…’Where do I want to go?’ (It’s how I did the first five years, after all.) (There’s value in both.)

: : I have pages of ‘lower case questions’…along with the Big Ones. Those feel like the meat of this word anyway. Maybe that’s enough? (I don’t think it is.)

: : Wait. See. Trust what comes. Or doesn’t? Yikes. (Wait a minute — that’s exactly what I did this month!)

Partway in to this post — and still no clear direction — I looked back in my journal, at the pages I wrote the last few weeks in response to Rumi’s words (translated):

To be happy, free yourself from what’s blocking you from being able to be the rest of yourself. Eventually, it will be a gift to all of us.

Cathy, you asked what Rumi’s Big Question was for January? This is it. The question that rose to the top is What’s blocking you from being able to be the rest of yourself?

(Oh my. Those two little words...rest of… ENORMOUS.) (It reminds me of Honoré’s One Word ’23: Happier! That -er!!)

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A handful of prompts from over the years stick in the back of my mind. One is from February 2021. I asked myself (and invited you along for the ride),

What does it mean to Do my word?

What does it mean to Be my word?

Excerpted from that ’21 prompt:

Some words lean toward Doing…others, to Being.

Some people lean toward Doing…others, to Being.

And still others have settled into that blessed balance.

Take the word Grow. You might grow things: a garden. A family. A collection. Sourdough starter. Tricep muscles. Your 401K. A skill set. Your vocabulary. Social circles.

And then there’s being someone who grows. Someone who…tries creative problem solving. Stretches to make room for different ideas or new experiences. Embraces their body. Becomes a listener first, speaker second. Or grows the confidence to finally be heard!

Doing or being? Cake or pie?

I’ll have both.

I asked it because it’s slippery for me: Doing is often easier than Being. The satisfaction of ticking off completable tasks beats the conundrum of existential questioning [almost] any day!

So. After all that.

This February — with Rumi fresh in mind (all that be and being he prompts!) — feels like the time to dig into that.

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On a different note? We’re straddling Imbolc, Candlemas, Groundhog Day. Which means…yep…we’re halfway to spring. (I hope you’re making the most of wintering!) See you soon — xo