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Intention for 2025

Happy New Year! I have done what I do each year at this time — choose an intention on which to focus for the coming year. I guess I’ve made it a habit, and I’m delighted at that.

Last year my guiding words of intention were Choose Life. Of course I forgot the phrase about halfway through the year, but when I look back, I see that I did indeed choose life. I traveled and camped–found a new campground I adore and cultivated new friendships with fellow campers. I accomplished repairs on my house, and cultivated both a healthier diet and a habit of exercise, all things that made me happier than I had imagined. It is only this minute, going back over the year that I see the many choices for life.

I have not been writing. I’ve been living life.

With the knowledge that what I focus on will grow, this year I choose to focus on Love.

Love. We write the word quickly when ending a letter. Or we say it about food and activities, sunsets and romance, books, babies and ball teams, and, in my case, trucks and blue jeans and boots and campgrounds.

But in actuality, the experience of love brings with it the need and practice of staunch courage. Because love always costs us something.

The great C. S. Lewis gives us this insight in his book The Four Loves:

“Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” — C. S. Lewis

Since my husband’s death, I have tended to guard my heart. I have guarded myself most especially from dreaming. The past year–the year of Choosing Life–has brought me to a place of being willing to be vulnerable. Or maybe it is simply that I’ve become strong enough to face my vulnerability that is an inherent part of being a human alive.

I suppose I could have chosen the word vulnerability, but I want to grow in the particular vulnerable direction of love. I want to nurture all that love gives: courage, strength, humility, fortitude, and joy.

I encourage you to choose a word of intention for 2025 and see where it takes you.

God bless you in the coming year.

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9 responses to “Intention for 2025”

  1. I have chosen a phrase this year. Once I heard in the movie, I Heard the Bells. The phrase is “Let’s be up and doing. The full phrase “Let us, then, be up and doing,” comes from the poem “A Psalm of Life’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

    Have you seen the movie? I think you would like it. There is a link to it in my recent blog post. https://thegardendiary.com/2025/01/03/bloom-thyme-friday-before-we-dive-in/

    Happy 2025 Curtiss Ann. I hope you find love in every facet of your life. I know you give a tremendous amount of love to the world around you.

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  3. Christmas 220 is in my memory as the last time my husband was really engaged with amity, his health went downhill from there and he passed away that May. Your words are inspirational to me, each post. I like reading about your camping experiences and so admire your spunk! I am blessed with a large loving and supportive family. Today I am going to try and think of MY word for the new year. Thank you!

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