One Word 2026: Illuminate 🔆

During the final week of 2025, Chris and I headed out on a last-minute roadtrip. As we traversed the interstate, we listened to the Libro.fm audiobook, Undimmed, soon to be published by Cecily Mak. She presents a unique framework called the Eight Awarenesses to help us deal with anything we use to escape discomfort. She refers to these bad habits as dimming behaviors—a wide variety of actions we engage in to take the edge off.

 

As I considered the dimmers in my own life, I reflected on my word from 2025: Light. It served me well during the last 365 days. When my reflective, supportive husband asked, "Are you sure you don't need to keep Light for another year?" I paused. During the previous trip around the sun I felt lighter. Moments of joy were more frequent, and I experienced a renewed sense of professional wellness. For over a decade, I've been happy to wave goodbye to my annual word, but this year I wanted to hold on just a little longer. So I began to consider what word represented the opposite of dull or dim. Wallah! Illuminate!

verb

1. 1.

   make (something) visible or bright by shining light on it; light up.

   "a flash of lightning illuminated the house"
2. 2.

   help to clarify or explain.

   "placing the events of the 1930s in a broader historical context helps to illuminate their significance"
3. 3.

   decorate (a page or letter in a manuscript) by hand with gold, silver, or colored designs.

   "this is a carefully written, large-format manuscript illuminated by Leonardo Bellini"

This multiple meaning word feels similar to light, yet it pushes me a little further. It invites a heightened sense of awareness and increased conscientiousness. During 2026, I want to continue to experience moments of light-heartedness, while simultaneously tackling tricky patterns of behavior that hold me back. I want less judgement and more acceptance, less neurotic DNA and more stillness, and less dimmers and more illuminators. 

Across my 40's, I've slowly begun to trust my inner-knowing.  There is still plenty of healing to do, and my hope is that as I continue to make nice with all my various parts, more will be revealed. I am often unaware of the dimmers in my life, which include scrolling through social media on autopilot, mindlessly snacking on crap food, and over-indulging in spirits. Willfully and knowingly doing these things is one thing. However, more often than not, I'm unconsciously going through the motions with limited awareness of how they impact my wellbeing. Illumination means clarity of purpose and increased intention—two goals worth pursuing. 

In my 5th grade classroom, I live for the light-bulb moments when students move from limited understanding to deep, abiding knowledge. Learning requires illumination because when we know better, we do better.  In 2026, my hope is to live a life where my aspirational values align with my practiced values. May the year be full of unexpected insights, new realizations, and multiple moments of clarity. 

“And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” ~Pico Iyer 

A Few Less Worries

Several weeks ago I got off the phone with Nora, hanging my head in frustration. She was pretty worked up over a situation she had no control over after someone we both love dumped a ton of worry, heartache, and anger in her lap. You see, most of my grandmother's troubles have been courtesy of the broken men she's raised. Watching her fret about their futures for a life-time has been both a blessing and a curse. Nora was born to nurture children and her ability to love without condition is unparalleled. Yet her constant companion of anxiety has taken a toll on her spirit. At the age of 82, she's tired. The nagging thought I couldn't shake was, "Why can't this old woman catch a break?" Thankfully the God of my understanding heard the cries of my heart, and as the new year dawned, so many small wonders have occurred. I want to pause and appreciate the goodness along with the challenges. 

A Few Gifts 🎁 from the Universe Making me Feel a Tiny Bit Lighter

✔ The judge finally ruled in my nephew's favor after a long and embattled custody war.  
✔ Thanks to PLSF, my student loans were forgiven.
✔ The Social Security Fairness Act passed.

✔ A free and fair election was held, and no one stormed the capitol because they'd lost. 

One Word 2025 💡

 

For eight months during 2024, I worked with an amazing therapist who taught be about Internal Family Systems, or Parts Work. During our sessions, she would often ask me what made my soul light up. This question haunted me for most of the year, and as the weeks waned on I wrestled with motivation, purpose, and meaning. 

As December dawned, I discovered the Japanese word, ikigai. This concept caused me pause. You see, I've battled professional restlessness since I left the classroom in 2017. As I've hustled to learn new roles and responsibilities within the education system, I've yet to find a place where I belong. Ikigai eludes me.  

So like every year before, I patiently waited for my word to arrive. During a recent conference, the keynote speaker, Anthony Mohammad, asked the audience to think about our "Soul Stories". He defined a soul story as the pursuit of your moral good in order to create good in others. He challenged us to reconsider the the noble, ethical, and inspiring reasons we chose this profession. When he asked, "How can you relight your pilot light?" I immediately pictured the old rusty furnace in my childhood home. Thoughts of my grouchy grandad flooded my mind. I could see him squatting down on the living room floor and cussing up a storm as he tried to ignite the flame. My word had arrived!

 

Multiple meaning words are my favorite, and this one seems to fit just right. In 2025, I'm hopeful the universe sheds some light on my next steps professionally. As I continue to unburden the parts of me that need integrated and healed, I am also hungry to feel a little lighter mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Per the usual, I would like to lighten the scale and move more. 

 

Back in 1993 my big sister was part of a youth choir at her church. I can vividly remember them singing this song, later popularized by Chris Rice. She and her peers swayed on the stage as the votives in their hands flickered and they belted out the words, "Take your candle, and go light the world." I've come to understand that we cannot fully appreciate light until we've tangled with darkness. In order to let the light in, we must be willing to reckon with the shadows of our past. 

  

My 2025 Anthem 

In a world full of hate, be a light

When you do somebody wrong, make it right

Oh, don't hide in the dark, you were born to shine

In a world full of hate, be a light

A few things that make my soul light up . . . 

1. Reading picture books to children 

2. Igniting curiosity and wonder in others

3. Learning something new

4. Advocating for equality and justice

5. Travel experiences

7. Hot bubble baths with a glass of Prosecco

8. Connecting with family and friends

9. Putting a puzzle piece in place

10. Conquering clothes mountain

STAAR Nonsense Vs. Real-Life Writing

I spend a fair amount of time annoyed with how we bastardize literacy in our schools. After completing my first book of 2024, and I paused and thought, "How should I respond to the journey of thought I experienced during the last two-hundred and one pages? Should I build a diorama, write a book report, or answer a short constructed response question about the author's purpose? Instead of doing any of these asinine things, I decided to log into my Amazon account and write a brief opinion essay about the brilliance of the author, hoping to persuade others to read this powerful and provocative informational text. 

Below, you can see my review. I also created a manufactured prompt that shows how the stupid STAAR test corrupts, depreciates, and pollutes authentic literacy practices. 🤮

Real-Life Writing: Amazon Review I just finished my first book of 2024, devouring it in three days. Peggy O'Donnell Heffington is such a relatable historian, writer, and woman. Chapter after chapter, I found myself thinking, "How have I never heard about this?" From eugenics, to puritan rituals, to wild ideas about contraceptives, I was fascinated to learn that since the beginning of time women have been finding ways to make choices about their reproductive options. I found myself thinking a lot about collectivism vs. individualism. As a woman who has mothered for many years through the act of teaching—yet has never birthed biological children—the final page dedicated to Nancy Olivi wrecked me. Heffington's acknowledgments and notes were equally compelling, and I plan to tell all the women I know about this book. In a time when reproductive rights are embroiled in identity politics, we need to know the origins of charged terms like "nuclear family", "barren", and "biological children". Our choices are not binary. False dichotomies serve no one. Her plea to unify with other women instead of take sides in an unhelpful civil war makes so much sense. I also now have two new poets to follow on Twitter. I hope women all over America will read this provocative, informative, and insightful book.

STAAR Nonsense: Short excerpt from the Introduction of the book titled, 🔗We're Not Having Children  Read the excerpt from “Without Children.” Based on the information in the excerpt, write a response to the following:  Explain how women can unite in their pursuit of freedom, regardless of their motherhood status. Write a well-organized essay that uses specific evidence from the article to support your answer. Remember to —  • clearly state your opinion • organize your writing • develop your ideas in detail • use evidence from the selection in your response • include a counterargument • use correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar Manage your time carefully so that you can —  • review the selection • plan your response • write your response • revise and edit your response Record your answer in the box provided.

If politicians and test designers would actually listen to teachers, we might be able to help them develop quality performance assessments that mirror what it looks like when folks lead literate lives. Instead they torture us with 10-point, extended constructed responses where kids are expected to craft a well-developed informational or argumentative essay responding to a bone-headed prompt. Authenticity is hard to standardize and impossible to scale. I no longer have the bandwidth for this kind of hogwash. Screw STAAR. 

Mentor Text Inspired Writing on the First Day of a New Year

Mentor Text	My Draft

 

☝🏽One Word 2024

"Sometimes we need to write our way back to ourselves." ~Lucy Calkins, Midwest Coaching Institute, 2023.

This morning I woke up to only three unsolicited emails in my various Gmail accounts. This is because for the last week, I've been clicking the fine print hidden at the bottom that says, unsubscribe. My inbox is cluttered, my backpack is cluttered, and my mind is cluttered. It's high time I begin to sift, sort, and FILTER out the things that no longer deserve my time, attention, and headspace. 

As the waning days of December slipped by, I began testing out a few words for 2024. I told a trusted friend I was leaning towards CARE LESS. She reassured me I could give myself permission to choose two words, but something about caring less left me unsettled. The word I was waiting on literally washed over me as I showered. Water has a way of filtering out the jumbled thoughts that litter my mind. Clarity often strikes in the early morning hours after my brain has a chance to rest and defrag overnight. 

The word filter teems with possibility. It's a noun and a verb. It can even be an adjective if you add -ation to the end and alter the spelling just a bit. From a scientific lens, it has the power to modify light, electricity, and sound. The part of the definition that piqued my interest the most was, "Modifying the appearance of something." You see, perception is reality. And often, my initial perceptions of situations are dead wrong. I get worked up over things outside of my control and I overfunction. In 2024 I want to apply mental and emotional filters that help me decide what needs to be removed and what needs to stay.

My husband says I have a super-sniffer. My heightened sense of smell led me to discover that the average American is expected to change out the cabin air filter in their car every 20,000 miles. Masking the funky odor in my car with air fresheners hasn't seemed to work, so later today I will follow the steps in a YouTube video, and replace the dingy, particle-infested filter. Metaphorically speaking, breathing fresh, purified air represents a significant change I hope to create in 2024. 

As a young girl, I was the quintessential teacher's pet. I smiled a lot, kept my mouth shut, and did what I was told. Pleasing others often meant denying my own wants and needs, which in the end only created resentment and heartache. Thanks to years of therapy, I eventually discovered my voice as both an advocate and a disruptor. Professionally, I'm the colleague who always asks WHY? When problems arise, I tackle them head on, executing like a champ. I sometimes struggle to stay in my lane and puzzling through complex issues energizes me. However, as I enter my mid-forties, I'm starting to wonder if it's all worth it. Perhaps it's time I pause long enough to apply an ROI filter, "Is this issue worth my mental and emotional energy?"

Upon opening this blog, I noticed I only wrote a single entry during 2023. I blame graduate school, but the truth is more complex. Writing can be a filter of sorts. It helps me slow down and think through things in a more methodical, nuanced way. It nudges me to weed out unhelpful thought distortions and clarifies reality. I want to write my way back to myself this year, rediscovering my purpose. May the word FILTER serve me well in 2024. 

One Word 2023

 

Attention Attend  Tend

         

What consumes your attention?

Are you aware of how you allocate headspace?

Do you attend every argument you're invited to? 

Where do you turn your gaze towards?

Why do certain situations demand so much of your time?

How do you tend the garden of your mind?

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” —Mary Oliver

In 2023, I want to remain more aware of how I allocate my attention. Increased consciousness of what consumes my headspace is the goal. 

“Where your attention goes, your time goes.” —Idowu Koyenikan

In a world where time is our scarcest resource, I often squander precious moments worrying about the insignificant. In this new year, I want to pause often and ask, “Is this thing I'm focusing on worth the space its occupying in my mind?”

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” —Thich Nhat Hanh

I did not inherit the gift of  gardening. However, I’ve found that when I tend to my mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, the journey of life feels a bit less rocky. My hope for 2023 is to cultivate a practice in which I notice, note, and name how I budget and spend one of our most valuable resources—attention.