Your 2025 Watchwords

Two days before New Years I saw a reel on Instagram that flipped quickly through a bunch of words. You were to take a screenshot and let word you land on be your fortune for 2025. I got mine (“connection”) and thought, “What is this baloney?” For some reason, the word didn’t connect with me and I decided to make my own reel. I put an IG story asking people for their favorite words. I collected a handful, then started writing affirmations for each. I collected some photos (many mine, several borrowed), put them in a video and set them to music. This is how it came out:

It was a lot of fun to make and it was extremely gratifying to see many people say their words resonated with recent events or thoughts in their lives. I say gratifying because although I wrote these quickly, stream of consciousness style, in the span of a single evening, each word carried a special intention. I didn’t want these to just be jokes (although GRATEFUL and SMORGASBORD lean heavily in that direction), I wanted them to have the potential of inspiring people in some way.

For those of you who are stumped by your word, I’m posting each slide below so you can read and digest them at your leisure. I’m including each word’s “too long, didn’t read” summary and, where significant, my thoughts behind the writing.

Happy New Year!

Anachronism

TLDR; use your hands, make something

Lunch

TLDR; get outside, especially if you work at home

Hullabaloo

TLDR; engage in quiet resistance

Tchotchke

TLDR; identify your emotions to help process them

Mashed Potatoes

TLDR; embrace chaos

Milieu

TLDR; choose your friends wisely, be a good friend

Cavalcade

TLDR; research before panicking

Spumoni

TLDR; you can still find joy in the memory of lost things

Crisp

TLDR; don’t worry what others think of you

note: this comes from a true story. I posted a video of me eating celery over on TikTok. I was test running an idea where I’d eat celery and then stitch it to a video of a rhinoceros eating celery (in celebration of Big Rhinoceros, Little Rhinoceros). Someone commented “I peed in your celery” and although I seldom care about comments on social media, this one really got to me!

Cacophony

TLDR; listen to your heart/trust your intuition

Grateful

TLDR; be grateful, even for the worst pun you ever read

Shampoo

TLDR; focus on that which is essential, let the rest wash away

Smorgasbord

TLDR; branch out of your comfort zone

Drawer

TLDR; practice introspection, allow yourself the opportunity of discovery

Aubergine

TLDR; be yourself!

Googly Eyes

TLDR; it’s never too late

Spelunk

TLDR; look for the light, hope

Sit-Spot

TLDR; you are not separate from nature, respect that

Vivacious

TLDR; live boldly

Sussuration

TLDR; spend more time in contemplation, less in reaction (also, get off social media)

Ratty Sneakers

TLDR; practice empathy

Discombobulate

TLDR; don’t try to reason with people who argue in bad faith

Love

TLDR; love thy neighbor

Sumfin’ Gleebus

TLDR; your future is yours

note: these were submitted separately but I was inspired to merge them together into one entry

Preposterous

TLDR; be curious

note: there’s a bigger story behind this one, but I’m going to save it for another day.

Listening to:

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