2023: Discernment

Y'all! This will be my NINTH year of doing a Word of the Year! 

This year's word is DISCERNMENT.

The dictionary defines discernment as "to perceive clearly" and "the ability to judge well". There's a quote that says "discernment isn't about knowing the difference between right and wrong, but about knowing the difference between right and almost right." 

There are two other words that have been rolling around in my mind—nuance and curiosity.  Those two words have started to change nearly everything for me. And I think those two words will likely be a guiding light to the main word of discernment. To be able to recognize nuance and approach with curiosity. 

As many people know, I really struggle with nuance. 1-I take things literally 2-most things actually do go over my head 3-I legitimately don't often see differences in things such as tone, facial expressions, or body language. Which, obviously, makes the realization of the importance of nuance pretty difficult. And it's something that I'll need to grapple with and need help with. 

Regarding curiosity, that's been one of those life-changing recognitions for me. What if we approached one another with genuine curiosity? And how do we even get ourselves to a place of genuine curiosity? How do we even know when we are in that place? Questions that are meant to shame "the other side" are only going to have them dig their heels in deeper. People don't respond well to shame. How do we foster safe conversations? What are good, thoughtful, curious, genuine questions? Where the purpose is to actually learn and try to be persuaded. 

Being a human is so hard and it's amazing how insanely impactful grace, compassion, and curiosity can be in relationships, and yet, how complicated and how truly friggin hard they are to have and show up with, especially when we need them. We don't always get it right. And discernment can be really helpful to try to do our best in the moments with the tools and resources we have. 

So, for 2023, I particularly want to focus on discernment. Discerning information, thoughts, ideas, and all that this entails. Discernment with the pillars of nuance and curiosity. Cheers to 2023!