I just looked back through my files, and according to my records this is my sixth consecutive January of eschewing New Year’s resolutions in favor of one little word. I first read about the power of the properly chosen word from a post on  Shutter Sisters.  Overnight, it seemed, everyone in my photography circles had found a perfect-for-them word and launched it, along with their intentions for the year ahead, into the world with one brilliant photograph after another.

I love a fresh start, and I’ve never harbored negative feelings towards resolutions, even the ones that I’ve cast aside. I like taking stock, and being honest with myself about where I have work to do, but it soon became clear to me that the one little word exercise had the potential to effect far more powerful and positive changes in my life than any resolution I’d ever written for myself in the past.

My first word was STRETCH and I could not possibly I have known when I chose it at the start of 2010 just how much the months ahead would require me to live it. I bent like the willow all year – into pain and discomfort – into life-changing news – into opportunities. The word became a touchstone. Whenever I found my internal dialog growing loud and anxious, I’d check myself. “You said you wanted to stretch, Debbie, what does stretching look like right now?” Today, six years later, I still come back to STRETCH whenever I’m facing a challenge that stuns me or an opportunity that scares me. The word has become a part of me, and I am better for it.

Maybe it was beginners luck, but that first word was my best word. I’ve chosen good ones in the years since: ACT, MAKE, FOCUS, DELIGHT but none have had anything approaching the same impact. Some years finding the word has been a struggle, other years the word has never felt right, but because I know how powerful the right word at the right time can be, I look forward to the process of settling on a new word every December, sharing it with a photo January, and I love seeing all of the words that my friends have chosen.

This year my word found me, or maybe we found each other, which I think is very auspicious. Earlier this fall I spotted this doorway in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington DC. This area was once my stomping ground, and I was so surprised to notice this charmingly named office building tucked between the street level restaurants and shops, looking like something straight out of film noir. Surely it’s been there for decades, and I’ve walked that stretch of Connecticut Avenue countless times, but I had never noticed it before. I only had a moment to make the photo, I had ISO 800 film in my camera, but hand-held, available light night shooting can go wrong so many ways. It was the kind of photo you take and forget – a wing and a prayer – not the sort that you are desperate to get scans back so you can see. As luck or kismet would have it I was pondering my word and checking out my scans when I saw this frame, and knew I was done.

WONDER it is! I love the word, and its many layered definitions as both a noun and a verb. A wonder, used as a noun, is defined by Webster as, “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable,” and Webster defines to wonder, the verb, as, “desire or be curious to know something.” Wonder, better than anything else, describes what I feel when I am out in the world making, or trying to make, good images, because the visual world is a wonder to me. Wonder is time to sit with my thoughts and sort them out. Wonder is making the time to learn. Wonder is putting myself in more situations where I am likely to be surprised by inexplicable beauty.

I have a really good feeling about this word. What about you? Do you choose one little word? If so, I’d love it if you’d share it with us in the comments.

Keep your eyes wide open,
Debbie