2021 Word of The Year

Personal

Jan 12

In 2020 my word of the year was “grace.” I chose the word mostly because I often put a lot of pressure and am very hard on myself . It turned out that to be the best word I could have chosen, we all needed grace as we figured out a new normal together. I had that word in the back of my mind as moved though the craziness. It certainly was a challenge when disagreed with many many people. But remembering that grace was my word last year really made me pause when I wasn’t giving myself or someone else enough credit.

My 2021 word of the year is “rise.” Let me tell you why this is the word I chose. Back in 2018 when I moved to Michigan, I pictured myself picking right up where I left off in New York, a place where I established myself for 12 years. I pictured getting a job, taking a small pay cut, the cost of living is significantly less after all, and quickly building my business in a new place. Of course that isn’t at all what happened. In reality I had a big piece of humble pie. I had a tough time getting an interview, let alone find a job. You can listen to more of this story on my first podcast episode.

After 2 and a half years of getting my footing, I finally feeling like the pieces are lined up. In 2021, we have no major life changes planned, no moves or babies or even job changes. None of the earth shaking changes that we have felt in our household in the past two years. I am hoping/wishing/praying for circumstances with the virus to get better in 2021, but if they don’t I am much more mentally equipped to handle it all.

2021 is going to be all about building. I’ve laid the foundation, now it’s time to raise the walls! I have a calendar full of amazing couples, we are working on some exciting projects at KLH and I am kicking off the year by building a grant-funded art installation for the city of Grand Rapids! I am prepared for things to not go my way, but at this moment is seems like all arrows point up!

I also like to put together a mood board that I hope captures the essence I want to feel in the New Year. I used monochromatic images to evoke to feeling of calm. I included images of travel, as I hope that is something we can return to in some way in 2021 and I also chose a few fashion images, like many of us, I spent the better part of the last year in leggings, so much so that I actually feel excited about clothes again!!