2025 Word for the Year – Path

My word for 2025 is Path.

I retired just over two years ago, and I feel like I’ve gotten to a place where my retirement “rhythm” is working for me. I’m basically doing what I’ve wanted to do my whole life–writing creatively–what I’ve had to push at least a bit to the side while I did paying-job writing. Obviously, some days/weeks are more focused & productive than others, but overall I feel like I’m keeping stories at the top of my priority list.

But I’ve also reached one of those life stages where other people around me are experiencing their own shifts and transitions. These are people I love, people I want to support, people whose rhythms I have absolutely no control over. So I know my own rhythm is going to get interrupted. My consistency will take some hits. My focus will get pulled away. All of that is good.

But my writing job will be to keep weaving a path for my writing, as these changes come and go. To remember that my writing is waiting for me, to touch base with it when I can, and to remember that picking it up again means forward movement. I think the last two years have set me up for that, and I’m beyond grateful that I’ve had this time to get my own rhythm set.