ripples.

In the last few years I’ve walked away from setting goals to choosing words or phrases to embody each revolution’s new beginning.

An artist I really admire is Morgan Harper Nichols and for the past few years she has shared an interactive post on her Instagram. The premise of the post is to take a screenshot of a video of dozens of words. Whatever word you land on can be your word of the year. Two years ago my word was “dawn.” My word for 2022 was “home.”

This year my word is “ripples.”

I am a sucker (read: wholehearted believer) in things like this. Closing my eyes, taking a breath, and giving into signs from the universe.

Admittedly, when I landed on the word “ripples,” a small disappointment rose in me. It wasn’t a word that felt like a revelation or a gut-punch into my being. Nothing like “dawn” or “home.”

But I sat with the word for a little bit and tried to listen to what the universe may be telling me.

I thought about how ripples have a starting point before they widen in concentric circles that go out and out and out. I thought about how ripples are gentle and impactful. They are not a force like crashing waves on a shore. But they are steady. Changing the face of a placid lake. Small changes. Small waves. But a flow nonetheless.

I’m thinking of things that are small and mighty. Like small habits. Small rhythms of your day that amount to big, sweeping changes in the course of a lifetime.

Maybe my 2023 is remembering I am a starting point. A point that creates ripples that seem so tiny in the grand scheme of things but amount to powerful changes. Whether it’s small habits of practicing discipline in writing, in reading, in my health. Or looking inward, to start small with being true to myself so that it changes how I move through this world.

So here’s to raising my figurative glass: to making ripples in 2023. It’s our Jordan year, everyone. Let’s do this.