Hello 2025! This is the blank slate, the reset to the year. I often treat it as any other day, but its significance offers the opportunity to contemplate plans. And I’m a planner, so I love to plan. Like last year, I have chosen the color and the word for the new year.
The Color
For 2025, I have chosen emerald to be my color of the year.
After five years of loss and continual upheaval, I am returning to growth, positive change, and prosperity as well as wonder. I am associating emerald green with these goals.
Emerald, as a color of green, brings to mind the gemstone itself. It is a type of beryl, with the molecular formula Al2Be3O18Si6. There are other colors of beryl. But the “emerald” term most often refers to a vibrant, green gem, one of the most valuable gemstones in the world.
My first experience with emerald of course comes from the Emerald City, the capital of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. (As well as their many adaptations, The Wizard of Oz from 1939 being of course the most famous.) Those books heavily influenced my childhood and my writing, as you can read about here.
Emerald makes me feel inspired and open to new adventures.
The Word
Artist Sam Marshall on Instagram, an absolute delight and constant inspiration, began a tradition in which you pick a word for the new year. This year, she has asked us to do this again. So I followed her advice and thought about the word I wanted to use for 2025.
CLIMB.
Climb is my word for 2025.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists some of these definitions for the intransitive verb, CLIMB:
- to go upward with gradual or continuous progress
- to increase gradually
- to slope upward
- to go upward or raise oneself especially by grasping or clutching with the hands
- of a plant : to ascend in growth (as by twining)
And, of course, “climb” is also a noun.
There is a flowering trumpet vine on my patio that I quickly illustrated in the header above with some watercolor and ink. This is a climbing vine which has now made its way up the fence and forms an umbrella of green, providing shade below, and its flowers provide food for hummingbirds and other pollinators above. I have witnessed the path of its climb since moving in, giving it the opportunity to grow rather than getting in its way. It is a happy plant. I see this vine every day and it reminds me that getting out of the way of something allows it the freedom to flourish. Its climb inspires and delights me.
I’m also a mountain girl at heart. Coming from the Southern Appalachian region of the United States, and being an outdoorsy gal much of my life, I used to hike those mountains at any opportunity. I never had fancy equipment for climbs, but I often scaled some precarious areas, particularly waterfalls. (I also did this in caves!) Out West, I’ve hiked many trails, but not as many as I would like. Southern California offers countless trails and opportunities, in the mountains and close to the ocean. This year, I aim to get back to my outdoor love, and get outside and up, climbing in elevation, which will also aid in my optimism!
And in my career, I aim to climb in 2025. It happened that 2024 led to some remarkable achievements with award nominations, nine book offers (some of those are series), and expanding into the production facet of my career with the imprint Stars and Sabers Publishing. I do not plan on slowing or backing down, and so I want to climb in my career with more financial and literary success.
The Color and the Word as Intention
Choosing positive intention is empowering. The vibrancy of emerald and the goal to climb will inspire me to grow in 2025.
Wishing you all peace and prosperity in the new year.
Write on!
Jendia
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