I was mulling over whether or not to choose my OLW (One Little Word) for 2021 or not. In years past my OLW has gone down the same path as my New Year’s resolutions – lost without a GPS. I was definitely leaning towards now choosing a word (I had given up resolutions years ago) until I read “Choosing a Word of the Month in 2021” by Christie Wyman. https://bit.ly/34QyFsf which was posted in the Facebook Group, Teach Write: Helping Teachers Grow as Writers https://www.facebook.com/groups/348136095622823/ If you haven’t checked this group out, you must!

Christie explained in her article how she too had trouble focusing on one word for the entire year, so instead she was going to choose a word for each month instead. I loved the idea and started to imagine what my monthly words could be. Since one of my writing goals for 2021 was to work on a collection of seasonal poetry, I thought I would start there. I chose one word for each season beginning with winter – REFLECT – RENEW – RELAX – REAP, and then looked for inspiring words for each month.

My OLW word for January is WONDER. (N) – feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. (V) – 1. desire to be curious to know something – 2. feeling doubt.

I have the feeling doubt thing down to a science. It is the other definitions I need to work on. I definitely wonder what the world has in store for 2021, but I want to be curious about life and the people and things that appear in my life. I believe that there are no accidents – everything happens for a reason and a lesson. I want to look at the world through the eyes of wonder, the eyes of a child. So for the rest of the month I am keeping my eyes open to the wonders all around me waiting to be discovered or rediscovered.

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is a good as dead; his eyes are closed.

Albert Einstein