I’ve been thinking for a couple of days of what I would like my word for the year to be. I’ve done this several times; not every year but several recently. I was even trying to remember all of my words from years past. I can remember peace and intentional. However, at the current moment, nothing else comes to mind! Gosh, I’m old!

I have been joking the last couple of weeks that my goal for 2026 would be “no falls”! I fell FOUR times in 2025. Ridiculous, crazy accidents that left me bruised and scraped. I had an egghead like a toddler, road rash from the dogs tangling me on a walk, a bruised arm from slipping in the garage and catching myself on the trunk of my car, and bruised knees, again from the dogs having the zooms and tripping me face first on the hardwood floors.

As I have been pondering what my word should be, the word that keeps coming back to me is STRONG. I want to be strong physically. I had surgery a year and a half ago. It took me out of the gym. I have just recently gotten back on a regular basis. Restarting a habit after a hiatus is hard. It took me way longer than it should have! I want to be physically strong first and foremost for my health. I don’t want to fall. I want to age well and keep my bones and muscles going strong in these years.

I want to be strong mentally. That part of the reason I have taken up my grandma hobbies of quilting, needlepoint and mahjong. If you don’t use it you lose it. I don’t want to lose muscle or brain! One thing I want to incorporate this year is listening to books on audible. I already listen to plenty of podcasts. I’m in the car all day every day for work. I don’t love reading like some people do. I am hoping listening while I drive will help me “read” some books this year. My mom and my oldest daughter read like crazy. I think they both read 150 books in 2025. One year I set a goal to read 12 books; one book for each year. I did it, but it wasn’t easy!

I also want to be strong spiritually. When my first marriage ended, I left our church. It was really hard to be in a place that I had been a couple in before. It was hard for the girls too. I emailed my pastor to let hin know why I was leaving. I didn’t want there to be any rumors or misperceptions so decided to just be upfront. It was hard to be there. He was gracious in his reply and I so appreciated it. We started going to Life Church. I liked it because we could sneak in and sneak out. We didn’t have to be in community with other people. I did work in the nursery there for awhile, but babies aren’t really my community. In January of 2025, Jay and I cohosted a couples wedding shower. One of the guests was my former pastor. It was so good to see him and as I was leaving I said to him, “I want to come back”. His response, “come on!” We went the next day and haven’t looked back. We have been there a year now and actually he married us in September. That’s a story for another post.

I’m sure this word will continue to evolve into other areas of my life I want to be strong in. I know I want to be strong in my job, financially and other areas of my life. I don’t quite have all of the specifics worked out in my head yet, but I have 364 more days!

What about you? Do you choose a word for the year? If so, what is it? I would love to hear.