1word

"Giulio said, "Maybe you and Rome just have different words."

"What do you mean?"

He said, "Don't you know that the secret to understanding a city and its people is to learn—what is the word on the street?"

Then he went on to explain, in a mixture of English, Italian and hand gestures that every city has single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be—that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there."

Giulio asked, "What's the word in New York City?"

I thought about this for a moment, then decided. It's a verb, of course. "I think it's ACHIEVE." (Which is subtly but significantly different from the word in Los Angeles, I believe, which is also a verb: SUCCEED.)

My friend Sofie offers her opinion that the word on the streets of

Stockholm is CONFORM, which depresses the both of us.

"What was the word in your family when you were growing up?" asked Giulio.

That one was difficult. I was trying to think of a single word that somehow combines both FRUGAL and IRRELEVANT. But Giulio was already on to the next and most obvious question: "What's your word?"

"Now that, I definitely could not answer. And still, after a few weeks of thinking about it, I can't answer it any better now. I know some words that it definitely isn't. It's not MARRIAGE, that's evident. It's not FAMILY (though this was the word of the town I'd lived in for a few years with my husband, and since I did not fit with that word, this was a big cause of m suffering.) It's not DEPRESSION anymore, thank heavens. I'm not concerned that I share Stockholm's word of CONFORM. But I don't feel that I'm entirely inhabiting New York City's ACHIEVE anymore, either, though that had indeed been my word all throughout my twenties. My word might be SEEK. (Then again, let's be honest—it might just as easily be HIDE.)

"...I don't know the answer, and I suppose that's what this year of journeying is about. Finding my word."


_Elizabeth Gilbert--Eat, Pray, Love



Elizabeth Gilbert writes in her book, Eat Love Pray, about the concept of a word that identifies you. While some may argue that it is just too simplistic to define oneself by one word, I find it a very interesting concept that can be both enlightening and revelational. Choosing only one word makes it a introspective process to find a broad yet all the while objective word.

I loved that Gilbert shared words that she wasn't so proud of herself for, words that she used to be.

I think it is interesting to sit down and really think about where life has led oneself, to think about the WORD that we were all about in highschool, at the beginning of college, now..etc. The WORD that we overcame, grew out of, and even, the WORD that we want to be....the WORD God has spoken over us or called us to be.

and then, truthfully, the word we really are. Does this line up?

Think on it. Reflect on it. Pray on it.

So, what defines you? I'd love to know--whats your word? Be honest if you want to be, share. What's the word you want to be? What's the word you should be? What's the word your family has put on you that you don't fit with? What's the word you fight in your environment, workplace, or community?



The word I’ve fought the most in my life and still do is COMPROMISE. Compromise on dreaming so big. Compromise on the man God has for me, compromise and be more realistic about making money…etc I can go on…

The word that describes me and my life right now is YIELD. My first word would have been surrender cus that’s all that floats around in my head. Surrender surrender surrender, you’re not in control, everything will fall into place, I tell myself. Yield came to my mind and I think it is more fitting because I am relinquishing and surrendering everything to God, but surrender isn’t where it stops.

In traffic, when one car “yields,” it is proceeding with caution. It is stopping, but also expecting another car to proceed or come forth.

In engineering and in materials science, the yield strength or yield point of a material is defined as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically. Prior to the yield point the material will deform elastically and will return to its original shape when the applied stress is removed. Once the yield point is passed some fraction of the deformation will be permanent and non-reversible.

In short, I am letting go, stopping, but am in full expectation of HIS coming-forth.

Ironically also, I am yielding to his mold. I do not want to be the stubborn “material,” if you will, that always goes back to the shape I was in. I want to let every “stress,” every path that he lets me walk mold me into the the person he has called me to be permanently.