For 2023 my word of the year was a phrase: living leaf by leaf—allowing the year to unfold, season by season, a half day at a time, a moment at a time, “considering all the things to be done” and seeing which ones crystallize and take shape, which ones fade away.
That sounds good to me even now: a natural unfolding, a measured pace, with time for the things that truly matter and time to let other things go. Living leaf by leaf over the last year helped me live that way.
But when life is a whirlwind, when there are so many things to be done and things that could be done, when there seem to be so many possibilities, so many decisions, living leaf by leaf has also felt overwhelming. With so many needs in the world, with so many emails in my inbox waiting for an answer, with so many to-dos and so many dreams, how could I thoughtfully and prayerfully consider each one?
I couldn’t. And I can’t.
For most of the last year, I’ve felt behind. Oh, I’ve mostly paid my bills on time and met my deadlines, but only just and with a few extensions. I somehow managed to lose my bank card which is so unlike me. I knew it must be somewhere in the house, but after searching for it everywhere multiple times, I finally called to report it.
“We’ll put your card on a 30-day hold,” the agent said, “and if you don’t find it by then, it will automatically be cancelled.” So of course, I looked everywhere again, and ha! I finally found it where it had fallen and lodged under a seat where I thought I had looked before.
So for 2024 my word of the year will be Simplify. Not in the sense of having to declutter, which just adds to my already too long to-do list (and which I’m already doing anyway). Instead I’m thinking of simplify as a more basic orientation. Just one word instead of a phrase. A way out of the overwhelm. And I’ve already started.
Just one example. When I was invited to speak at another event this March, I didn’t take time to consider it fully leaf by leaf; instead I thought, simplify. I’m already speaking four times at a four-day event that month, already leading a series of Bible studies, already preaching one Sunday, already have another writing deadline, already committed to my websites and editing job and trying to carve out time to work on my next book. That already seems like too much—and those are just my writing-related commitments.
I want to have time for family and friends and church, for prayer and spiritual practice, for going for walks and making meals and other mundane things like not misplacing my bank card again. So no, as much as I would love to, I can’t take on another speaking commitment for March.
God, grant me wisdom and grace for each day. God, help me simplify.
Writing/Reflection Prompt: How has this new year begun for you? With a word or a phrase or intention, a resolution that you’ve already set aside, or in some other way?
April Yamasaki 
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