I’ve been working with the magic of a word of the year since a decade, and it’s never failed to transform my life in small and big ways. This year, though, my word remained elusive. All I had for the longest time was an image.
It wasn’t just any image, either. It was a specific card from a specific tarot deck that stalked me every time I thought about my word of the year.
This one.
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Words, they say, are spells. And the word of the year can be an intensely potent spell that you cast not just over a year, but — dare I say it? — over a lifetime. They have an inherent magic and power that can work in ways you may never have imagined, to bring you the exact medicine you need at any point of time.
That medicine can sometimes be bitter, sometimes not. But like any good medicine, a word of the year can change you in bold and beautiful ways. Like Devotion. My word of the year for 2022. It was a bitter pill to swallow, and yet — it swept through my life, leaving me with some important and necessary questions to answer.
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Devotion. That was my word for 2022. And what an interesting experience it has been!
I started the year by listing down the areas that I was devoted to, all of the places where I wanted to bring my love + attention + care. That included my health and my relationship with my body; my art and creative practices; my relationships and friendships; and my connection with my soul + the divine.
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“Solitude, like a long love, deepens with time, and, I trust, will not fail me if my own powers of creation diminish. For growing into solitude is one way of growing to the end.”
– May Sarton, The House By The Sea
The world isn’t designed for introverted, solitude loving people. For a long time, I thought there was something wrong with me, what with my hermity tendencies and my need for pockets of quiet time, especially after I’ve peopled.
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Choosing a word of the year can be an intensely transformative journey — even when you lose sight of your word, it doesn’t lose sight of you. I should know. This is my eighth year choosing a word of the year. There have been years when I have forgotten all about my word (I’m looking at you, 2020), but that word has still worked its magic in my life.
Words, they say, are spells. They have an inherent magic and power that can work in ways you may never have anticipated to bring you the exact medicine you need at any point of time. The first word I chose, eight years ago, was Transform. It is a spell that’s been woven into the very fabric my life, impacting it far beyond just one year.
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Sovereignty. That was my word for 2021. And what a ride it has been!
I started the year with a sovereignty list. A list of ideas that I had bought into that didn’t really hold true for me anymore. And as usually happens, as the year progressed, I lost sight of that list.
But it didn’t lose sight of me.
I pulled the list out while doing my year end Visioning, and to my surprise, I had achieved almost everything on that list, plus some more!
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There’s something about owls —
mysterious creatures of the night,
their golden eyes, staring unblinkingly
into the shape shifting shadow
and then lightning quick —
they pounce.
fear, like a mouse, held firmly in their talons.
I thought I’d share this month’s issue of Gypsy Wanderings because these invitations feel like they need to be shared more widely, especially given the times we are in. I hope this also gives you a taste of the love letters I send out every month – intimate, personal, and filled with love and care. You can sign up for Gypsy Wanderings at the bottom of this post. xx
Hello loves,
It’s hard to believe that one year on, we are still held hostage by one small, constantly mutating virus. The chaos and destruction it has caused this time around in India – and on a global scale – is difficult to comprehend.
But where there has been death and despair, there has also been birth and love and hope. It can be very difficult to “be positive” in these times, ButAndAlso, we are simply not built to deal with this overwhelming tsunami of grief, guilt, fear, panic, and rage.
“I will participate, but not as asked.”
― Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
When I was in my fiery teens, my father declared me a rebel without a cause. I’ve always been contrary. If you tell me to go up, I will go down. If you tell me not to do something, you can be sure that I will go right ahead and do it. And then proudly tell you that I did it too. That fiery rebellion of my teenage years has mellowed over the years, though – I guess that’s what they call aging.
I may not be a fiery rebel, but I am still contrary. I question most things. I tend to think deeply. Sometimes, it is annoying. It would be so much easier to just go along with what everyone else is saying. With the things the world seems to value. With what everyone else is chasing. It is so much more difficult to try and swim against the tide.
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Let’s talk about anxiety for a minute. The debilitating fear. The constant worry. The thoughts that circle around in your head at a hundred miles a minute. The heart palpitations. The shortness of breath. The certainty that everything is going to come crashing down around you.
We’ve all suffered from anxiety at some point in our lives, but did you know that 1 in 7 Indians – or 197.3 million people – were impacted by mental disorders of varying severity in 2017, of which 44.9 million Indians suffer from anxiety disorders. And this is 2017 data, so this number is sure to have skyrocketed.
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