I’m not sure when I first started picking a “word of the year,” and I don’t do it every year - but I find the practice to be a clarifying one, probably better than my other January instruments of torture, like giving up cheese and half and half for some insane reason.
(Dairy is my love language)
Last year, in 2024, I picked FINE. And I feel like I was on to something, because last year ended up being kind of a roller coaster of a year: packed on one hand with pain, fear, and death (my youngest son spent four days in the hospital; my father-in-law was diagnosed with a virulent cancer and died in a matter of months; we suffered through a disastrous presidential debate and ended up again seeing a female candidate for president lose to Donald Trump).
On the other hand, in 2024, things came together for me as a writer and a pastor in some really unexpected and beautiful ways. I was called to serve Lake Nokomis Lutheran Church in Minneapolis as Pastor of Visitation and Public Theology. I started a new role as a contributing columnist at the Minnesota Star Tribune. I’ve had the chance to participate in conferences, panel discussions, and serve as a keynote speaker to gatherings at churches, universities, and in trainings for clergy and church leaders - in addition to being invited to work together against Christian Nationalism by secular groups and non-Christian religious leaders.
In the midst of all that - while I continue to prioritize relationships, caregiving, and my own physical and mental health needs - it felt challenging (honestly, a lot of the time) to just stay somewhat even keel. FINE was an important remedy in those moments of extreme ups and downs, when it felt like the world was careening wildly on its axis. I needed the steadying hand of FINE, and also to see that FINE could also mean beauty, and it could also mean (as it does in pieces of music) that some things are going to come to an end, and I’ll find a way to keep on going.
All that being said, 2025 has kind of continued in that same raucous vein. I got surgery for a (minor) skin cancer spot on my forehead on Dec. 31 (way to hit that health insurance out-of-pocket max!) and the stitches split at my removal appointment, leading to the entirety of January spent with a forehead wound (including for my new license photo). My grandma Eleanor died early this month.
On a national and global level, Trump’s administration has already begun to implement the Christian Nationalist Project 2025 agenda: government that is rooted in exclusionary, racist, classist policies determined to punish the poor, the marginalized, and political opponents. Just to be clear: nothing Christian about demonizing immigrants or halting federal funding for non-profits. Feel free to make other political arguments for these policies, but you can’t excuse them in the name of Jesus.
So what word did I choose for 2025? Are you enjoying this overly lengthy preamble?!
CELEBRATE.
At this point, you are free to think: “You are completely nuts.”
And let me be clear, I am a white Minnesotan with German and Scandinavian roots. I have terrible body rhythm and my singing voice leaves much to be desired. I’m much more comfortable in measured emotions and stoic withholding in times of pain or joy.
Which is maybe why I (you, too?) really need this word. We all need this word.
I can’t say for certain why you need to celebrate this year. But I know you do.
I’ll tell you why I do.
ARCs are here!!
I mean a couple of concrete reasons
On March 25, I am turning 40!
On March 25, my second book comes out!
As we learned this year with painful family deaths, Life. Is. Short.
Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum (Don’t let the bastards get you down)
While I might not be great at celebrating, I am really good at letting things get me down. You can count on me to interpret things somehow in the least positive light, sometimes taking others’ words or actions to reflect the absolute most poorly on myself. Not taking things personally is often a work in progress. Those of us who feel deeply sometimes find that the very things that are a strength in our work, relationships (even in my writing) can also make life feel unbearably painful at times. I know many of you readers can relate to this, as we’ve talked about it before!
All this to say that I am going to force some celebrations this year. On Feb. 1, I will celebrate the end of January with a glass of wine and a big ol’ hunk of cheese (ha). I will work on myself and my very competitive basketball-playing family to celebrate the victories, even the ones that are occasionally hidden in what look like defeats. We will stop expecting perfection, and stop accepting accolades or successes with grim fortitude and an immediate raising of the bar, rather than open exuberance.
I’m going to work really hard to not miss the joy and celebrations inherent in a second book launch. I will accept and remember kind words and compliments and milestones - not only imprint on my brain the angry emails, rejections, or dashed expectations.
I will hold things more loosely. I will celebrate time with my parents, as we all grow older together and continue to learn to care for each other in new ways. I will celebrate time with my husband and kids: the stolen family moments, the prayers before dinner and bed, the uncontrollable laughter even when it’s time to go to sleep. Even when the jarring sound of the rubber basketball hitting the back of the mini hoop hung on their closet door rings out over and over and over again.
I will celebrate the holiness of sharing communion at church and in peoples’ homes, as I visit congregation members. I will celebrate people getting better. Justice and truth creeping their way out of a controlled media environment. I will celebrate every newspaper column I write. Celebrate stories of solidarity and humanity and resistance and non-violence.
I will celebrate the connections made in person and online with other storytellers and truth-tellers, with journalists and pastors and community leaders and activists and politicians who aren’t giving up. With readers who remind me that the truth is not lost or ignored.
In this celebration I will find freedom in a year that is trending toward a suffocatingly restrictive and authoritarian government.
I will read again and again these words:
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:1-5
Thanks for reading,
Angela
P.S. …
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Our family motto is "don't let the bastards win." Very excited to get my hands on a copy of this book!
You have encouraged me to pick my own word...it's between resist and rejoice. Can I have two?