My book club (yes I am in a book club because I don’t read as much as I would like and this would force me to read at least one book a month whether I wanted to or not) read Eat, Pray, Love for the month of May and although I had read it YEARS ago and seen the Julia Roberts version while bawling over an ex boyfriend into a bag of popcorn, I decided to read it again to remind myself the difference between the actually story and Hollywood’s adaptation. The part that stood out for me (besides the long drawn out history of culture, museums, religion and food) was when she was in Italy and she was talking to one of her Italian friends about what her WORD was. They came up with the word for Rome, New York, her friend etc, etc, but it took her until almost the end of the section on Italy to come up with her word – which was attraversiamo “let’s cross over”. This was a great word for her, because throughout the book she is constantly changing paths, changing her mind and crossing into her destiny.
All these words made me think of my own word, of Toronto’s word, of Ajax’s word and with that I spoke to the girls in my club.
One friends word was CREATE which is perfect because she is an artistic, scrapbooking genius who creates these amazing pinterest boards and is the envy of the less creative me. Another friends word is CHAOTIC – because her life (work and home) is a bit of a crazy insanity right now. She is working long hours (like sometimes 20 hours a day) and her beautiful little girl and hubby are consistently sick so life for her – at this point and time is CHAOTIC. My third book club buddy was given a word – because she’s hilariously inappropriate at the best of times and her word is #NOFILTER (yes with the # included).
We talked about Toronto’s word (since all of us are originally from the GTA and after discussing various options (RUDE, CHAOTIC, TRAFFIC, GROW, AMBITION etc) we (well I) think DIVERSE fits it bet. I mean we are probably the most diverse city in the world with our ethnicities, religion, food and incomes. So I like DIVERSE as being at the heart of soul of Toronto.
I couldn’t for the life of me decide on my word though…there were options of course HOMEOWNER, PASSION, WOOSAI, REALITY, FRIEND, all of these fit, but don’t fully capture my essence, who I am. A year ago it would have been proudly been DADDYS GIRL no question, but that isn’t who I am anymore. I had hoped it would be MOTHER, but that’s not true either. 4 years ago it could have been ANXIOUS because my anxiety took over a huge chunk of my life to the point where getting out of bed was painful yet necessary, but with therapy and medication I am in a much different place now.
So without a word, I am a DRIFTER maybe? I mean I have friends, I have family, but I don’t truly belong with either group anymore. I float along where requested never feeling settled. I bought a home that I love, yet I dream of packing it all up and moving far away, wishing I had the option, but with a home, a job I couldn’t get elsewhere and a dog who is crazy about me, I am GROUNDED. What’s a girl to do?
Having put my own word search on hold, I came home from book club thinking about Ajax’s word. I haven’t lived here long, so deciding on a word for this town seems superficial. How can I judge a town I haven’t begun to explore? I haven’t eaten at its hidden gems, I haven’t shopped at its stores and I haven’t truly walked down its sidewalks and through its trails. I need more time. However one word that comes to mind is COMMUNITY because it seems every weekend I see signs for community events that are being hosted by one group or another. However I want to give it time before I jump in and label it as such.
What about you – what would your word be? What hits you at your core? Think about it and let me know…
Love
Nicole
doingthingsourway 