#Resound11 Day One – One Word to Describe 2011

It’s time for #Resound11

It’s December, the time of year when we huddle together like bare-branched trees keeping one another company throughout the chilly, dark winter.

Unless, of course, you live in the southern hemisphere. In that case, summer is just around the bend…

No matter which corner of the globe you call home, it’s the time of year when mindful bloggers unite to reflect back upon the year while making grand plans for the new one.

In other words, it’s time for #Resound11!

What is #Resound11 & why is it spelled like that?

#Resound11 is this year’s version of #Reverb10, which was a wonderful online project created by Gwen Bell and some of her friends.

The heart of #Resound11 is a series of thought-provoking prompts for bloggers to write about, one for each day in December. It’s not meant to be stressful. If a certain prompt doesn’t thrill you, skip it. If you come up with a better prompt, use it instead.

The reason it’s spelled #Resound11 is not to be cute and clever (although I appreciate both qualities!) The # in front of the word makes it a Twitter hashtag. Hashtags make it easy to search Twitter for specific topics, such as #Resound11. That way you can quickly find other people who are doing the prompts.

#Resound11 is kind of like a blogger’s advent calendar, although the gifts you gain come not from what you take out, but from the energy you put into it. These gifts come in the form of insights, epiphanies and friendships with other bloggers.

Plus, it’s one yuletide ritual that won’t put any weight on your hips.

Who came up with #Resound11?

This year, Jaemie (who I found using Twitter hashtags #Reverb10 and #Reverb11) came up with #Resound11. She created a site with a blogroll and will be emailing out a prompt each day for those who want to play along. As she says:

“Use these prompts as an opportunity to reflect on 2011 and ready yourself for 2012. Think about your 2011 and think about your 2012. Express your thoughts and feelings. Have fun. Make friends. Be awesome.”

In addition, Paula (who I met through NaBloPoMo a couple years ago) is also posting prompts over at her wonderful blog, Don’t Be a Picklebump, where she writes:

“I was disappointed yesterday when I found out that the creators of Reverb weren’t going to do it in the same format, but plenty of folks have taken up the Reverb mantle and are creating their own Reverb11 sites – including me!”

Looks like there’s plenty of inspiration to go around!

#Resound11 prompt for Day 1: One Word

Here is the #Resound11 prompt for December 1st, 2011:

“What is one word that you would use to describe your 2011? Why does that word sum up your year? (We’ll be writing about our one word for 2012 later, so just focus on this year!)”

Perhaps “home” is the best word to describe my past year, even though it is such a simple, prosaic word – a word so plain one can easily overlook it. Home, after all, is one of the first words a person learns when studying a new language: home, casa, haus, maison.

Home is so very basic.

And yet, for years, home was something I didn’t really have. Sure, I had a place to sleep at night, but it didn’t feel like home. As I mentioned during last year’s #Reverb10 in the post Chuck Norris and a Morphed Sense of Home, prior to coming to Texas I had moved 16 times in 10 years. After all that jostling around, I no longer felt like any particular spot on the globe was home for me.

As a result, I kept the bulk of my belongings packed away in boxes, like a fairytale princess waiting patiently because “some day her prince will come.” Just when I’d given up, “some day” finally arrived, and I wound up moving to Texas to live with my prince in September of 2009. Even then, I was still too shell-shocked to completely unpack. It wasn’t until last year that the process truly began.

When I say, “unpacking,” I don’t just mean physically, but emotionally, creatively and even spiritually, too. So many pieces of me were boxed up for so long, cramped up, stuffed away, waiting for a safe time and place to come out. (Come out, come out, wherever you are!)

So even though 2011 included lots of travel (hooray – I love traveling!) it was different for me this time because I have a homebase now. These days, when the trip is over, I’m not merely headed someplace else, I am going home.