So here we are… the 2nd day of the year.  And it’s time to start exploring the 2016 word of the year: FLOURISH

For some background – there’s a story that comes along with the decision.  Let’s flash back to late 2014.  My process in picking a word for the year is to do some major contemplation.  There is some praying involved.  There is some soul-searching involved.  There are some word studies involved.  I read up on the various words that are coming to the surface and dig into the etymology.  And at the end of 2014 both “hope” and “flourish” were the two words my digging boiled down to.

Some of you know I went with “hope” in 2015.

Fast forward to late 2015.  And my annual process returned.  And I went back to “flourish” and read up on it again… and the process ensued.

As I was discussing this with a friend she brought up another word I might want to consider.  At the time, my husband and I were packing to move to Salem, Oregon.  And she pointed out that “salem” is also defined as “peace”.  So I started the process on the word peace as well.  Soul-searching… praying… studying…

Some time went by… and on December 30th I stumbled across an article about “flourish” that I had saved for future reference.   And can I just tell you how providential it was to find it when I did?!  This is sentence #2 of that article.

Flourishing means peace, or shalom, in every direction.

And so with that confirmation… the word of the year is “flourish”.  Makes total sense, doesn’t it?!  So, join me this year as I dig into it and learn about it and see what God has to show me through the study of this topic in 2016?