My Word for 2025: Harmony

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays so far have been beautiful and filled with joy. After a bevy of get-togethers, I more or less crashed with a bad head cold on December 20--just in time to go to a Shenandoah Valley retreat center with my sister until Christmas morning.

The quiet provided me with a great opportunity to think about 2024--my first year of retirement from the day job--and how 2025 might look different. I had lots of fun travel adventures (and caught up on sleep!), but I've been feeling unsettled. Some of it might have had to do with election fatigue--I think it struck all of us, regardless of whom you voted for. But then I looked back on some of the habits I wanted to cultivate but didn't when I selected "Repurposed" for my 2024 word. I didn't follow through on more dedicated prayer time, for one thing, and a fall in July claimed my exercise routine. To be honest, I used the fall as an excuse so I had more time to fritter away on silly computer games.

At the retreat center, I returned to Paul's Letter to the Colossians, which my women's Bible study group delved into last fall. Colossians 3:14 in particular resonated with me: "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (NRSVUE)."

I checked out Merriam-Webster's online definition of harmony, which speaks of internal calm and a "pleasing arrangement of parts." I may not ever achieve perfect harmony, but that will be my word to live by this year as I try with the Lord's help to create a more pleasing arrangement" of the parts of my life.

Do you have a word for 2025? If so, email it to me by January 14 with a short explanation of why you chose that word. I'll share a sampling of the answers (first name only), and one responder selected at random will receive a gift from me related to the word.

On the Nightstand: Flight Behavior

Back in the day, I was a big Barbara Kingsolver fan--Prodigal Summer, Poisonwood Bible. But more recently, I've found her a bit preachy, and she's fallen off my radar screen.

So I was delighted to find I'd missed 2012's Flight Behavior, which sounds right up my alley. One newspaper called it "an intricate story that entwines considerations of faith and faithlessness, inquiry, denial, fear and survival in gorgeously conceived metaphor." That's what's on my nightstand this month, and I'm hoping that instead of political points of view, I get the beautiful storytelling and characters of Kingsolver's earlier works.

What's on your nightstand?

Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher (brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe) is credited with this gem:

"Every man should be born again on January first. Start with a fresh page.”

Of course, one could say the same about any day of any year. Starting with a fresh page is challenging, unnerving and energizing.

This month, in line with that Harmony concept, I'll be dedicating myself to forming better habits on my prayer life and physical health. And, a few ideas on books or booklets are rolling around in my head, so I'll be doing some research and developing proposals.

Whether or not you're a resolutions maker or word take, I wish you all the best for 2025. Please let me know how I can pray for you.

Blessings, Melanie