Undefined
Hello 2026!
Undefined I went looking for a word to stand at the gate of this year, a sentry syllable, something clean and forward-facing. I searched the dictionary. I searched myself. But every word I found carried fingerprints… old heat, old smoke, the echo of applause or regret. Each one rose like a promise and fell like ash before it reached tomorrow. So I closed the book. Not in anger. Not in grief. Just the thump of alignment, a punctuation heavy enough to mean enough. This year will not be summoned by a word. It will arrive unannounced, by breath and weather, by mornings that refuse prediction. I will live first, Language can follow me.
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This feels like choosing presence over branding. Not trying to manage the year in advance, not auditioning a word for meaning. Just letting life show up first and trusting language to catch up later. That restraint reads like confidence, not absence.
“It will arrive unannounced, by breath and weather, by mornings that refuse prediction.”
I love, just love how you captured the relief of not naming or forcing, just letting it be. Thank you for writing this so beautifully.