2023: A Year of Wonder

Looking ahead to 2023, I've been considering my "word of the year". I am not one for New Year resolutions, but I do love to set a good intention. For me, 2022 felt very heavy. A bit too much on the "get things done" side with too little a focus on quality and outcomes. Toward the latter half of 2022, I took stock of my personal endeavors (how can I honor future me - my inner elder, as I like to put it) and leaned back into my creative side hard, signing up for pottery and punch-needling classes - I've been considering how to now embed play and curiosity back into my day-to-day professional life in a natural and joyful way, as well.

This leads to me to my "word of the year": wonder. When I think about play, curiosity, and joy... I think about the need for wonder. This is such a hard word to define, though. Wonder is so much bigger than what the Merriam-Webster dictionary provides us -

Wonder: "(noun) a cause of astonishment or admiration"

I'm not sure how to describe "wonder" any better, but I do think it has a lot to do with being comfortable in the uncomfortable. To me, wonder is like asking the question "what is this like for you?" and not necessarily getting the answer. Wonder requires you to walk into the unknown while being okay with not necessarily receiving the answers - and still allowing yourself to ask the questions, perhaps somewhat dreamily. This can be so difficult in our current society with minicomputers in our pockets, ready for us to grab and google information on a whim! This idea we must always know "the answer" or have an answer kind of grinds my gears a bit. What ever happened to the possibility of not knowing and, instead of jumping to "here's the answer", sitting back and sitting with the (now uncomfortable) curiosity? What creativity comes from allowing ourselves to be curious and wonder? What do we lose when we don't give ourselves (and others) this space? I'm also wondering when we lost this desire as a society to spend time on wonder...

I have a personal goal to resist that urge immediately and, instead, sit in the thing I'm wondering about. I ask myself:

• Why do I really need to know this answer (and do I really need to know it now)?
• I've survived the 80s and 90s without information at my fingertips and had to sit in wonder before. What makes it different now?
• How is the immediate search for an answer impacting my curiosity and my brain?

This takes me to my wish for everyone moving into 2023 - I hope we can all maintain a sense of wonder regarding disability, accessibility, and our efforts on inclusion as we work to build inclusive products, services, ecosystems, buildings, and more. There is so much heart to do this well and intentionally (and I love this for us!) - but heart isn't enough. We need action, too!

Let's carry this idea of wonder with us for the 2023 journey to help us stay playful, curious, and joyous. Are you with me?!

And I'm curious - what's your word for 2023??