My word of the year for 2025 was Refresh. I had hoped to refresh my daily gratitude practice. To refresh this website with a new look. To usher Hope Beyond Our Sorrows into the world. To claim my profile on Substack and give it a fresh focus on writing as a spiritual journey. All of these things have been personally and spiritually refreshing for me in 2025.

But by the end of the year, I wasn’t feeling refreshed. I felt frazzled.

From Refreshed to Frazzled

On the Friday before Christmas, the nativity scene that I usually set up at home for the first Sunday of Advent was still stored away in the basement. The annual Christmas letter I thought I’d write this year wasn’t even started. While I had written an Advent article, met my other writing and editing deadlines, and worked on the Christmas liturgy, I still needed to write my Christmas sermon.

That Friday morning, I was putting two folding mattresses into my car to return to a friend, which meant removing all of the boxes already in the back of my car and removing the cover of the hatchback so the mattresses would fit. At the same time, another friend was texting to confirm our walk that morning, just as one of my sisters was texting me about the day, just as one of my neighbours happened to be passing by, stopped to see what I was doing, and asked about our driving together to have dinner with friends the following week on Boxing Day. At the same time as all of that, I was hoping I wouldn’t be late for my walk with my friend, while at the same time hoping I’d get home in time to move the things from under the bathroom sink before the plumber arrived.

No wonder I was feeling frazzled! With too many moving parts at the same time. With too many different thoughts pulling my attention in too many different directions.

Too Much Multi-Tasking?

Some say that’s the problem with multi-tasking, that when we think we’re handling multiple things at the same time, we’re actually quickly cycling through tasks one after another, after another, after another, after another—and getting overloaded.

Avoiding the multi-tasking trap might seem simple by separating and spacing out the tasks. So, I could have removed the boxes and put the mattresses in the car the night before. I could have gotten up earlier and removed the things from under the bathroom sink before I went for my walk instead of trying to squeeze in that chore afterward. Or tried to get an appointment with the plumber later in the day.

But I didn’t do any of those things—I had already postponed the plumber for too many weeks, and the day(s) before had felt just as full as that Friday morning. And as it turned out, my Friday morning turned out just fine: I got the mattresses into the car, answered both texts, chatted with my neighbour, enjoyed walking and talking with my friend as planned, and was ready when the plumber arrived.

That evening, as I journaled my gratitude for the day and for the many people who are part of my life, I realized that everything had fit together smoothly that morning despite my frazzled feelings. And instead of seeing the different parts of my life as disjointed fragments, as multiple different tasks one after another, I began to see them together as part of a whole, as part of a colourful kaleidoscope.

A New Year, A New Word: Centred

That’s why for 2026, my word of the year is Centred. And no, centred is not a typo—in my books published in the U.S., it would be centered, but I generally use the Canadian spelling on my blog, and I’m doing so even more deliberately here as a reminder that for me this is a new year and a new word.

Unlike Refresh, my word for this year is not a verb, not something that I need to do, or to work at, or to put in motion. It’s not a command to be centred. Instead, it’s an adjective, a word that describes a way of being.

Centred doesn’t appear in most English translations of the Bible, but I did find one reference in The Voice translation:

Blessed are those whose help comes from the God of Jacob,
whose hope is centered in the Eternal their God.
—Psalm 146:5

The Common English Bible says, “whose hope rests on the Lord their God” (Psalm 146:5, emphasis added). Being centred has more to do with rest than with work. So, instead of feeling frazzled—instead of being overwhelmed by too many things happening at the same time—this year, I hope to be centred, to see my life whole and resting in God.

For my next post, I plan to say more about Psalm 146 and being centred, but in the meantime, I wonder, Are you longing for a sense of wholeness too? Have you chosen a word for 2026? I’d love to hear from you, and I know other readers appreciate comments too, so please add yours below.