The joke's on me...

Some of you may be wondering what word cloud I ended up with for my Word of the Year 2012.  From my original 68 (yes, I got a bit carried away there) I whittled it down to a short list of 11*.  I like the idea of controlling the choice of finalists but accepting the serendipity of a random final choice.  Good for a somewhat serious, driven, focused (Word of the Year 2009) soul.      First I chose the words I thought would be useful in a disciplinary, pull yourself together type way (these are VERY Wendy type words!):Persist, Discipline, LearnThen there were some Brene/ Pema type ones:Authenticity, Wholeheartedness, Clarity and ChoiceAnd the ones that sort of clicked as I thought about them over the past weeks:Release, Embrace, Acceptance *Then there was laughter which snuck in so I let it stay to show my openness (Word of the Year 2010). I could live with any of these.  I could risk choosing one that was not perfect, or I could change it.  I had Courage (Word of the Year 2011) so I picked my word… And you may have guessed it…Laughter It may not have been my idea of a Word for the year but I will embrace it.  I know I could do with regularly remembering to lighten up!  It will be fun to see how my understanding of this word for me evolves!I did not take these photos but this boy really reminds me of Bhuwesh, the perenially smiling 5 year old who lives upstairs in Birtamod.  And the Laughing roller skater adorned our front door in Dharan.  I love him! PS: Just quietly…following my mother’s example, I do have a back up word to bolster laughter:Release…2012 will be a year to release a few old habits and ideas about what I can and can’t do.Laughter and release…bring it on.