A year ago, I decided to introduce a new idea into the family unit that I called, "Word of the Week". I did this to encourage more forward-thinking dinner conversations. Having never done this, I had absolutely no way of knowing how husband or son would receive my suggestion. If you can't let your hair down in your own home, where can you let it down, right? With not a thing to lose and all sorts of good things to gain, I introduced it randomly and oh-so-nonchalantly one Sunday evening during dinner.
With paper and pen I asked John and Alex what positive words started with the letter 'A'. After jotting them down, I next asked if they would be willing to try my experiment for the week and select one of the 'A' words as their focal point.
My real motivation behind this was that I was tired of having the same old dinner conversations. If I didn't ask, "How was your day?" we were left watching the news or reruns of "Seinfeld." I was looking for a more meaningful connection — especially now that Alex is 15 years old and dinner is sometimes the only time we are all together as a family. I also think that the power of positive thinking is alive and well and that the brain is just waiting for a goal to work toward, to think about, and to wrap itself around.
Both John and Alex obliged my idea and decided to give it a try. It was fun, so the next Sunday we did the same exercise for the letter "B". Every Sunday I would bring the ever-growing list of words to the dinner table and we would discuss how our word worked for us. We would then brainstorm on a new word for the upcoming week. Initially we thought it would be good to all agree on the same word, but soon realized that it worked better to select our own based on what we faced in the upcoming week.
After 26 weeks, we decided to start over. As the year unfolded, we saw themes and occurrences developing in our lives that were positive and encouraging, so we selected words that kept us moving toward those goals. Some words worked better for us than others.
For example, the first time we had the letter "v" I picked the word verve and had a very vervy week. When "v" rolled around again, I naturally picked verve, but the love I felt from verve the first time just wasn't there. The quirkiness of verve just didn't work again. Regardless of the outcome, we continued week after week.
Although we continue to talk about our day, we tie our personal word into our conversation.
I remain surprised that Alex does this at all. He is a teenager and there are some weeks that we truly believe he is working for the CIA on a project so Top Secret that he barely utters a word. And there are other times when John and I think our child has been replaced with Alien Alex. Regardless, we have our word as our weekly anchor and conversation piece. I think that is terrific! Terrific was one of my favorite weeks. In fact it was so terrific, that I requested we repeat our "T" week.
Two weeks ago we celebrated the first anniversary of 'Word of the Week'. I assumed that the Potocko boys had grown weary of this and wished for the drone of the TV at dinnertime. But I was happily wrong as they both said they would continue doing this weekly exercise.
Currently the end of the week draws to a close on the letter "B". My word was "believe" which I thought was appropriate for the holiday season. I also needed to believe I was going to achieve a goal at work for which I had my doubts.
Being that both Alex and John derived benefit from another wacky mom idea makes me very grateful (used during the "g" week).
And you don't need a family to make the magic happen. You can do this with or without others. If you decide to incorporate "Word of the Week" into your own routine, please let me know. I hear from numerous readers every month and appreciate the emails.
So, as I say goodbye to "believe," we turn out attention to "c." The word calm pops to mind — you can't go wrong with that word-choice. Compassion may be a more timely word….I'll have to wait and see what words we collectively bring to the table. … literally.
Cheers to you and best wishes for a calm, courageous, caring, compassionate and creative 2012!