For about 3 years now I’ve been using a life-planner that prompts me to choose a NorthStar word for the year. (It’s called the No Limits Planner from Bright Beta Co.) This guiding word helps me choose my goals, my intentions, and my plans. For most of my life I have struggled to know myself and value myself enough to choose a direction based on what I need and what I want. I believed that I had to diminish myself and put my needs aside in order to be desirable within whatever community I tried to belong in. The idea of making plans and growing myself in a direction that I am choosing felt as foreign to me as landing in Thailand and trying to navigate not knowing one single word of Thai.
Last year, in 2024, my guide word was “Wild”. I may write more about that later, but for now I’ll just tell you that I leaned into my authentic self. I spent intentional time in nature, listening to her as she taught me about nurturing, belonging, peace, beauty, symbiosis, community, and connection. I even did some “wild” things, saying yes when I felt the yearning. I connected with the flow of the seasons, growing, blooming, letting go, and rooting. I had incredible encounters with wild animals, birds, plants, and trees. It was a wild year!
For the year 2025 my guide word is “Scopic”. For those word purists out there, yes I know scopic is not a word on its own. If I write it “-scopic” does that make you feel better? I started by toying (pun intentional) with the word kaleidoscopic. I was drawn to this word because I instantly got an image in my mind. Many images, really. As I thought about how a kaleidoscope works, I got excited. The patterns of colors in the images are actually colored objects inside the tube, and what we see are fragmented,, colorful reflections created by mirrors also inside the tube. With a little twist of the tube, the images shift and change. I really connected with this idea of a little shift in perspective and a whole new set of images appears. Yet, those changing images are still based on the same colored objects. The insides have not changed, but the view changes.
I don’t like to feel fenced in, so despite my excitement, I didn’t settle with kaleidoscopic. Instead I began to think about the other tools we use based on mirrors and lenses that allow us to see things differently than before. I thought about the telescope and how it helps us see things far away. The microscope allows us to see things that are very small. The periscope allows us to see things around a corner or above water from under the water. There are scopes that help us hear, feel, measure, etc. A quick Google search informed me that there are 40 words ending in -scope in the Scrabble dictionary. The next four search hits had different claims about the number of words ending in -scope: 65 words, 145 words, 81 words, and finally 107. And at that, my quest for an answer ended. I don’t really care!
Ultimately, my choice of the word “scopic” allowed me room to stretch and grow in my intentions for 2025. We’ll see what different lenses I choose to use and where that will take me.
On a personal note, I have written about not writing, but I haven’t posted it yet. It’s been a rough year. I’m okay. More on that later. I’ve missed y’all!
Scopic, what a great word. No matter how it is defined, it requires looking and seeing. Reminds me of the mindfulness meditation technique where as you see whatever your eyes see you say to yourself "see" -a continual refocus of attention. See. See. See.
I love the freedom your word gives. I get to choose the lens for the situation. Sometimes a kaleidoscope is wanted but sometimes a microscope is needed as well. No boxes, just choice❤️