For the last several years, I have joined with a group of virtual friends from all over the word to reflect at year’s end. Brought together by Susannah Conway’s Unravel the Year Workbook, we review the preceding year and set goals and intention, including finding a word for the coming year.

Possibilities. Intuition. Reveal. Create. These were my guiding words for past years. Last year, after completing the workbook, my meditation gave me the word tenacity. I had an immediate adverse reaction to it. For me, the word’s connotations were about struggle and hardship. So I tried to be sneaky. Rather than utterly reject the word, I added a modifier. I decided on: Tenacious Magic. That would be 2017.

I put these two words up on the window sill above my kitchen sink which serves as my altar. I added some art, an acorn seed, some stones I’d collected on a recent hike, and a mock-up of my book cover. Every time I washed dishes or prepared a cup of tea or meal, I saw those words—Tenacious Magic. I always silently emphasized MAGIC, keeping tenacious lower-cased and mumbled in my mind.

But 2017 proved to be a year where TENACITY was the source of magic. In a year my novel went from a manuscript to a BOOK. And not only a book, but a hardcover, a trade paperback, an eBook, and an audiobook. Each of these steps, however, came with a learning curve that demanded perseverance. Without tenacity, I wouldn’t have made my deadlines. I wouldn’t have made new friends at conferences. And I wouldn’t have made it through my first author reading. The struggle was real.

But so too was the magic:
THE SONG OF ALL has received lovely praise from some very talented authors.
I have many new subscribers to my monthly newsletter.
And In less than two months, my story will be out in the world, hopefully taking readers on an imaginative journey.

In a few days, I will say goodbye to TENACIOUS MAGIC in all-caps and with heartfelt gratitude. I’m looking forward to my word for 2018 which has yet to be revealed. Stop by in January. I’ll have it up on my kitchen-sink altar to guide me through the next 365 days.