Word for the year 2009: BOUNTY

BOUNTY
? noun:  generosity evidenced by a willingness to give freely
? noun:  the property of copious abundance
? noun:  something given generously

BOUNTIFUL
? adjective:  producing in abundance (“The bountiful earth”)
? adjective:  given or giving freely (“Bountiful compliments”)
? adjective:  ample abundant

December is word-of-the-year month on Christine Kane’s blog. Guest bloggers are writing about their experiences with their word for 2008. I thought I’d take the occasion to introduce my word for 2009: BOUNTY.

You can read about the word-of-the-year here.

It’s a kind of cleaner, deeper, intention-oriented twist on New Year’s resolutions. Setting an intention for who we want to BE during the year rather than assigning ourselves a to-do list.

Why BOUNTY?
This word came to mind a few months ago while I was setting my intention for Christine’s e-seminar. It felt right then and it feels right now, as the word to accompany me through the coming year. Already it’s helped me to emerge from the constricted place I’d somehow fallen into. Over the last few months, my horizons have expanded. A sense of possibility and strength has opened up in me.

Partly, I just like the sound of this word, BOUNTY, and the fact that it’s not a commonly used word. First, the adjective, “bountiful,” came to me. But I find the noun more powerful as an intention. It serves as a beacon, a guiding light, rather than any kind of admonition or a quality that I’m supposed to develop or adhere to.

“Abundance,” a more common word, doesn’t feel as rich and full to me.

For me, BOUNTY takes abundance in every direction — to having, enjoying, receiving, producing, providing…

There’s the bounty the world provides me and the bounty I offer to others. And there’s simply the bountiful nature of life and being.

Taking this word as my companion for 2009, I intend to expand my appreciation for the riches my life presents every day AND to expand my capacity to give abundantly, with no sense of scarcity or risk of running out. Recognizing the bounty of my life inspires gratitude for everything that has been “given” to me so generously. Making choices from a place of bounty rather than scarcity may bring a new freedom.

I could easily have chosen “clarity” as my word for 2009, because a lack of clarity has characterized my last few years. I’ve faced and am still facing big unanswered questions like “where will I live (and even on which continent)?”, “what will I do (with my life)?” “where is my relationship going?” It seems like every aspect of my life has been called into question and there’s no stable base anywhere on which to prop the other pieces. I’m yearning for clarity.

Still, as I sit with all this uncertainty and indecision, it seems that underlying the whole mess has been a tendency toward black-and-white thinking — this or that, here or there, time running out, time wasted, wrong choices made, doors closed…

I’ve had trouble making decisions. I’ve felt stuck, tentative, like I couldn’t move until some choice was made. There was only one right way and my job was to find or identify it. But I didn’t feel capable.

Somewhere along the way, I realized that I’d created a false problem. Who said I had to choose a or b, to do this or that, to live here or there, to get what I want or feel miserable? BOUNTY helps me to break out of these illusory walls. I have so many riches, so much joy, plenty of possibility. And no matter what choices I make, that abundance remains. I can’t screw it up. I don’t have to be afraid. If one person won’t accept my kindness, there are millions of others to give it to. If one decision leads to trouble, I’ll make another.

In 2008, I began to expand again, to allow, to open up to the possibility of things looking completely different from how I’d planned. And it’s bought me to the place of intending BOUNTY in every sphere for 2009. In the space of abundance, in the space of all that IS rather than the space of either/or, “clarity” as I’ve imagined it may become irrelevant. We’ll see… I look forward to the great bounty of 2009 with my arms and eyes wide open.

Have a bountiful day!