January 1st, 2020
Word of the Year 2020 – Resolve
Last night before my husband and I went to dinner with our group of friends, my word for 2020 winged in on a whisper in response to a fleeting question of what word would preside over and throughout my year that begins the next decade of our calendar years. “Resolve,” the messenger whispered over my left shoulder in between steps as I was walking to the stairs. “Resolve?” I asked, uncertain, even unwilling. “Resolve!” the messenger affirmed. And here’s why:
To resolve is to choose, decide, determine, figure, name, opt, settle (on or upon). It is a decidedness, decision, decisiveness, determination, determinedness, firmness, purposefulness, resoluteness, resolution, stick-to-itiveness. It means to move forward without hesitation, indecision, indecisiveness, irresoluteness, irresolution, vacillation.
As a noun, resolve refers to a strong determination to do something.
As a verb, resolve means to complete or conclude or settle or find a solution to a problem, dispute, or contentious matter; to find an answer to and to decide firmly on a course of action (individually, or as in a formal vote or consensus, or with consultation and deliberation).
It can mean to separate or to change by disintegration (as in how a prism resolves the light into a play of color). Also to resolve is to reduce by analysis: to resolve the problem into simple elements, to distinguish between or make independently visible adjacent parts of. Even to cause resolution of a pathological state. To resolve is to make something, such as one or more voice parts or the total musical harmony, progress from dissonance to consonance. Indeed! To make situations progress from dissonance to consonance.
To have resolve is to be gifted unyielding firmness or endurance.
To practice resolve is to act with robust commitment that is made possible by a strong, healthy, dynamic faith.
For all these reasons and with abundant clarity that the number of the New Year holds, Resolve is my word for 2020.
