Three Words that Changed my Life

Learning to Trust the Quiet Voice Within

Every January I choose a single word for the year.

Or perhaps I should say...the word chooses me.

For years I thought I was simply selecting a word that sounded inspiring. I never spent weeks researching possibilities or making lists. A word would quietly appear, and somehow I knew it was the right one.

I accepted it.

Only later did I realize that each word was teaching me something I didn't yet understand.

My three most recent words have been:

Discernment.

Resurgence.

Presence.

At first, they seemed simple.

But as the months unfolded, each became much more than a theme.

Each became a teacher.

Discernment

When the word first came to me, I was navigating one of the most difficult seasons of my life.

Relationships were changing.

I was questioning myself.

I was trying to understand truth from opinion, kindness from manipulation, peace from turmoil.

I assumed discernment meant making better decisions.

Instead, it became learning to quietly recognize what belonged in my life—and what did not.

Discernment wasn't about judging others.

It was about seeing clearly.

It taught me that peace often comes from what we choose not to carry.

Resurgence

The following year my word was Resurgence.

At the time, I had no idea what that would mean.

Looking back now, it seems almost obvious.

My creativity returned.

My confidence slowly returned.

My curiosity returned.

I found myself studying again, experimenting again, painting with excitement instead of obligation.

Doors opened that I never expected.

New opportunities arrived.

My artistic voice became stronger.

Resurgence wasn't about becoming someone new.

It was about returning to the person I had always been underneath fear.

Presence

This year my word is Presence.

And perhaps this has been the deepest lesson of all.

Presence asks me to stop rushing.

To notice.

To listen.

To trust that I don't have to force everything.

Some of my most meaningful paintings have begun not with a plan, but with paying attention.

A walk.

A white flower.

The morning light.

A feeling I cannot quite explain.

The painting seems to arrive when I am fully present enough to receive it.

Was It Intuition?

Recently I found myself asking an unexpected question.

Did I really choose these words?

Or were they somehow given to me?

I don't pretend to know the answer.

Some people would describe this as intuition.

Others might call it guidance from God.

Some would say the unconscious mind knows what the conscious mind has not yet discovered.

Perhaps these explanations are not as different as they first appear.

What I know is this:

The words arrived quietly.

They carried a sense of peace.

I didn't fully understand them.

But as I lived with them, they unfolded into exactly the lessons I needed.

Living an Intuitive Life

For a long time I imagined intuition meant dramatic moments or extraordinary insight.

Now I think it is something much gentler.

Intuition is paying attention.

It is noticing what quietly resonates.

It is recognizing what brings peace instead of urgency.

It is allowing wisdom to unfold rather than demanding immediate answers.

An intuitive life is not about predicting the future.

It is about becoming fully awake to the present.

Looking Back

If someone had asked me three years ago where these words came from, I would have shrugged.

Today, I simply smile.

Whether they came from my deepest self, from years of lived experience, from the unconscious, or from God's gentle guidance, I no longer feel the need to define them.

Perhaps the source matters less than what they produced.

They led me toward greater peace.

Toward better relationships.

Toward creativity.

Toward healing.

Toward becoming more fully myself.

That is enough.

So now, when the next word arrives, I won't rush to understand it.

I'll welcome it.

I'll live with it.

And I'll trust that, in time, it will reveal why it came.

Sometimes the quietest words become the greatest teachers.

— Anita Wood