(Editor’s note: This is the first in a 31-day online event of reflecting on 2010 and manifesting what’s next. You can read more about it and sign up to participate here.)
One word for 2010. A few words I considered include harried, frazzled and exacerbate. Because as things continued to exacerbate throughout the year, I felt harried, thus resulting in a completely frazzled Janna.
Did it seem like bad situations kept getting worse and worse all year long? Did I feel attacked and harassed all year long? Did those things cause me to feel completely exhausted and worn out?
Yes, yes and yes.
So can I have three words for 2010 instead of just one?
I guess that would defeat the purpose of the exercise. Without belaboring the point (I’ve done a lot of writing a lot about 2010 and its harried depressive tendencies), here is the word I choose for 2010: bumfuzzled.
I choose it for a number of reasons. The meaning does describe most of how I felt this year: confused and flustered. But also because it SOUNDS the way 2010 looks in my mind when I think about it. Go ahead, say it out loud. You know you want to. Say it: bumfuzzled. Doesn’t it just sound messy and jumbled and all over the place? Like if you were trying to untangle Christmas lights and you were following a loose end that you thought would wind through the knots one by one until the lights were in a straight string as they should be. Only you soon discover that the loose string you were following just wound the lights into a bigger pile of knots. You’d be scratching your head wondering where the hell you went wrong because all this time you thought you were following the string that would get you untangled. Yeah. Bumfuzzled.
One word for 2011? Well. What’s the opposite of bumfuzzled? Serene? Tranquil? No. Those sound all too placid, and my life is anything but placid.
No. I need a word that evokes a sense of serenity and clarity combined with action, movement and all the pieces coming together.
If bumfuzzled means that the pieces have been floating around, all over the place, causing confusing and frustration. Then the word I want for 2011 needs to be something like a magic wand so that when it waves, things appear fully formed — like the wreath that Hermione puts on Harry’s parents grave.
That word, I think, is coalesce.
What about you? Here’s the prompt from #reverb10:
“One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?”
What are your words?
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