The Wonderful Word for this Wednesday is “WOTY”

Well, it’s actually an acronym, and it means ‘Word of the Year’.  Have you heard of this?

The Word of the Year originated in Germany in 1971.  It is determined by linguists who decide which word is the most important word in the public sphere for that year and it is announced at the END of each year.  For example, you won’t be surprised that in the year 2020, the WOTY was COVID.

Here are a few other WOTY examples:

2017 – fake news

2009 – tweet

2003 – metrosexual

1999 – Y2K

And best of all: 1996 – mom

Last year’s WOTY was ‘Enshitification‘ and it means platform decay.  If you want to know all about this word, just click on it and you’ll learn all you need to know about enshitification.  I find this word fun to say and might try to incorporate it in my vernacular this year!

To see each year’s WOTY for the past couple decades, visit HERE.

WOTY or WFN?

Somewhere along the line, people have taken this concept and personalized it, choosing their own personal word of the year.

I have never been one to make New Year’s resolutions, and I’m not even sure why, but choosing an ‘intention’ or ‘focus’ for the year in a single one word reminder feels doable and seems WAY more helpful.

My life has been pretty susceptible to big change at a moment’s notice over the past few years, so I’ve learned not to plan too far down the road.  Therefore, I don’t feel like I can commit to a WOTY, but I can commit to a WFN (Word For Now).  Might my WFN turn into a WOTY?  Yes, it’s possible, but I like to keep my options open!

The Catalyst for This Year’s WFN

This is the first year I’ve chosen a WFN, but it’s also the first year in a while that I’ve been very introspective about looking back at the last year and thinking about what’s to come in the new year.

Having been a teacher for so long, my ‘years’ would begin in September and end in June, so this ‘January New Year’ thing just wasn’t really a ‘thing’ for me.  September was always the month of new beginnings and making all kinds of optimistic plans for the year.  January was right in the middle and never felt like a new beginning to me until now.

One of my favorite mixed media artists is Laly Mille (if you’ve been reading this BLOG for long you’ve heard her name more than a few times!) and sometime in December, she offered a class called “New Beginnings: Art Journaling for the New Year”.

In this class she guides her students through creating a journal page of gratitude for the previous year, and a page dedicated to your WOTY for the New Year.  I snagged the on-line class as I felt ready to process this past year, which I believe has been one of the most challenging year’s of our lives thus far, and to chose an intention for this new year.

Here is my art journal page for culminating 2023.  My idea for this page was that you will encounter rough seas, but there’s always a sunrise.

My WFN

Next I began thinking of what my intentions are for going forward and the word ‘Embrace’ came to me, as in “Embrace each moment’.

I don’t want to waste my life away thinking things like, “When _______ happens, things will be better”.  Instead, I want to BE in each moment and find the good in the right now.

Whenever I start to stray into negative thoughts, my WFN will bring me right back to my intention in a second.

I got to work on my art journal page dedicated to my WFN and here it is:

An important feature of this page is the pocket I made to hold some reminders that I can read when I need to refresh my thoughts and get back on track.

I have this little book of quotes and sayings etc. and I picked out several pages that spoke to this concept of embracing each moment and stuck them in the pocket so that I can go back to my page and remind myself of my intention.  I also made a little tag that I can use a bookmark if I’d like (I wrote it messy on purpose – it’s a thing).

Also, can you see the journaling I did under some of the collage?  Before I ever started putting images and texture on my page I journaled about my new intention on the blank page.  Then I started layering beautiful things.  I don’t need to go back to read my journaling, it was about the process of processing what the word ‘Embrace’ will mean for me this year, but it’s fun to know it’s under there.

Enough about me!  What about you?

Do you already have a WOTY or a WFN?  I’d love to hear what it is and how you chose it, so comment belowl!  If you haven’t, has reading this giving you any ideas?  If nothing else, I hope it has encouraged you in some way, even if you just needed to hear that ‘So far you’ve survived 100% of your worst days, you’re doing great”.

If you have any questions about art journaling let me know.  I love to talk about it!

Kimberly Snider, virtuoso, signing off

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