my 2023 word of the year

My word-of-the-year mug collection from the folks at MudLOVE.

Dear friends,

For those who celebrate, I hope you had a peaceful, joyful Christmas! Ours was quiet — just the three of us — but there was a Christmas ham, roasted vegetables, champagne and gifts, so I figure that made it perfect. Today we’re relaxing in various corners of the house, and I’m sitting with my ever-present notebook near-at-hand, eyeing the Christmas tree. I’m one of those people who wants to clear everything out immediately after Christmas to get ready for the clean slate of the new year, whereas my partner maintains the tree and all its trimmings should remain up until at least January 6th. So begins our annual ritual of me relenting until January 2nd, when I finally can’t take it anymore, and just start taking everything down myself. But in the meantime, I’ll let him think he’s winning while I spend time with my notebook, planning for 2023.

For the last — I don’t know, 10? 11? — years now, inspired by my friend Ali Edwards, I’ve forgone new year’s resolutions and instead chosen a word or phrase to help guide my decision-making for the coming year. I find that they’re more inspiring than resolutions, which I tend to get a little perfectionistic about — and subsequently, give up in exasperation by January 23rd or so. A word, on the other hand, allows me to reach toward a goal, rather than measure my daily progress at an unreasonable standard. Besides, my words of the year have brought me a lot of gifts: my words BOLD and EXPERIMENT in 2020 are what encouraged me to take an unsolicited call from a woman who would become my beloved editor and publisher, and resulted in The Lightmaker’s Manifesto. Last year’s RADIANT helped keep me focused on the work I needed to do on myself, so that my new book, Radiant Rebellion, came from a place of honesty and truth. And after all that work, my word for 2023 became really obvious:

REBEL.

In some ways, I’m a bit shocked that this word has called me so strongly. I feel like I’ve tried to defy negative stereotypes all my life: as an immigrant, as a Black woman, even as an attorney. But I suppose after spending a year chest-deep in researching ageist stereotypes and how to defy them, it’s not that surprising, really. Incidentally, I’m more interested in the noun version of “rebel” than the verb — I don’t want 2023 to be about me being a contrarian; rather, I want to live as a person who broadens definitions; of what it means to be in midlife, yes, but more importantly, of what it means to, well, be. And this coming year, I’m going to be all about deeply living that rebel life.

And so, bring it, 2023.

(And incidentally, if you’re digging these word-of-the-year mugs, have I got great news for you: the awesome folks at MudLOVE are offering Chookooloonks readers 20% off of all their personalized offerings — perfect for creating your own custom reminder of your word of your year! Simply enter coupon code KAREN20 upon checkout to redeem their offer. And the best part is that by buying one of their products, you’re also doing some good: proceeds from each of their handcrafted products provides one week of clean water to someone in the Central African Republic, as well as dignified work for women in the Dominican Republic, and education for their children. To date, MudLOVE has donated over 1.5 million weeks of clean water. I love this company: as you can see, I’ve already amassed a few of these mugs over the years myself! So g’on and get you some. Don’t forget to enter KAREN20 at checkout!)

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