The one little word/word of the year practice has always been deeply meaningful to me. I start praying about my word in mid December, and usually have a short list by Christmas. Sometimes the frontrunner is very obvious, and sometimes it takes some time to narrow it down. At times (this year is one of the “times”), it comes out of nowhere and isn’t even on the short list.
This year’s short list was:
Anchor, breathe, elevate or higher, celebrate, meliora (good, toward better things), stand, and memento vivere (remember to live)
Not on the short list, but a song title/lyric that stays with me is “Die Slower”.
As I was looking at the Latin phrase “memento vivere”, I came across this one: Festina Lente… make haste slowly.
I knew immediately, and then when I investigated it further, I found that an anchor is often used with that phrase, which further solidified it for me (since anchor was another word on my list. Plus memento vivere AND die slower fit perfectly with this phrase.
What does make haste slowly mean? Why this phrase for 2026?
My 2025 word, align, was incredibly powerful for me. And while I brought things into alignment this past year, there are still ends to pull together and I need to maintain a lot of what I started that may not yet be a routine.
This year, I’m feeling called to, as one of my daughters said the other day, “be where my feet are”. It’s important to me that I seize all the moments and remember to live, but that I keep anchored with the lessons and systems and rhythms and disciplines that held me this past year. I want to take advantage of every opportunity, but keep the priorities in order. I want to hold to every bit of quality time with my people but also handle my business. I want to keep my health in a state that allows for a life I want to live.
I am and have always been a person of extremes. I’m either all in, or I’m not in at all. I live sometimes with urgency, as if I’ve been given a death sentence (which, I guess, technically, haven’t we all?) and I have to cram everything possible into every moment. Then other times I can’t find the motivation to do anything. Decisions paralyze me. Fatigue of planning and executing brings me to a full stop.
This year, I want to focus on making haste but doing it steadily and correctly. Balance. Anchored. Living.
As I reread this, I feel like it’s a scattered explanation, but I feel it in my spirit. The depth of understanding in my very soul is perhaps beyond mere words, beyond an ability to convey it to anyone else. As has often happened in the past, I absolutely believe that the word and message and meaning will take better shape as the Lord reveals to me what He wants to show me with this year’s word, and I am eager (and always a little apprehensive) to live this one out.
