A Word About The New Year

We all know names have power in fairy tales but specific words or phrases do as well. Sometimes it's a curse, sometimes it's just the words "I promise". Fairies are known to both tell the truth but also be very devious with the exact words they use so that the meanings can be hidden or layered. Sometimes simply the word "yes", sets off a chain of events. Either way, articulating a thought, an agreement or giving something a name or form has power in fairy tales, sometimes accidentally; even to the point of making something real. As such it alerts us to the power of our own words, both in speaking with others and in how we talk about ourselves.

Being on a Snow Queen kick at the moment, due to both the season and all the ruminating on Snow Queen characters in general at present*, I was reminded that there is a single word Kai is trying to form out of ice shards: "Eternity".

I was reminded of this as I saw people summing up either their New Year's Resolutions in a single word, or perhaps more accurately, their one-word description of how they intended to approach their coming year. While I didn't see anybody use ETERNITY (because wow, that would be harsh!), common words were ENJOY, LIVE, IMPROVE, FIT while more unique words were WORDS, PROTECT and FABRIC. It quickly became clear that one word can mean so many different things!

If I had to make a one word resolution for my 2014, the first one to mind is:

BETTER

What would yours be?

(No explanation necessary.)

Note: The beautiful photos are by Christian Aare on deviantArt HERE and show little peeks of Christian Birmingham's lovely, lovely Snow Queen illustrations within the settings.

* My review on Frozen is coming soon - I just need to cut it down to about half its current size because apparently I have a lot to complain, er, say about it, but it doesn't mean you'll want to read it all!