My 2026 Word is “Hearth.” Here’s Why.

Hearth

the floor of a fireplace.

the area in front of a fireplace.”they were sitting around the hearth”

used as a symbol of one’s home.

For many years, I chose a word to symbolize the upcoming 365 days. Something I wanted to focus on and embody. In 2018, it was “persist.” When my mom got cancer, it was “light” because, despite all the darkness, I experienced so much of God’s light. There are many words all scribbled in the back of my Bible, but . . . the words stop after 2021.

Why?

I guess I just didn’t even know what to expect from life anymore! It felt so much less out my control than it did when I was in my nice, southern bubble. With the way things were going out here in California, I’d choose “peace” and then be hit by a torrential downpour of personal drama.

But, here I am again. My marriage has grounded me. My nervous system is resetting. And it just came to me the other day. So I’m here to declare:

My word for 2026 is “Hearth.”

It’s so perfect in many aspects. Firstly, I’m a new wife—the “hearth” can refer to one’s home, and with a simple “I do,” my new husband and I created a foundling home.

California was such a strange place, before Ben. At times it did feel like home, only for me to lose a friend or loved one and then it became strange and gray and overly plastic all over again.

But, when Ben and I got engaged, my feet felt as if they were finally on solid ground and I was no longer floating, anchorless. Without even thinking, I started referring to California as “home.” This state is now my hearth, because it’s where my husband is, and he is my home.

I’m also making his modest apartment into a home. When I first arrived, it had an oversized gray couch, a simple black table, and a TV stand. Plus a couple bookshelves. It was a bachelor pad! And, poor Ben, I just had to start nesting. Now, there’s a furry green rug, half-melted candlesticks, a 12-drawer craft cabinet, bouquets, parasols, baskets, and—is that a polyster “snow blanket” on the floor? Yes, yes it is. Just in time for Christmas!!

Ben has oh-so-graciously allowed to create a hearth here. It is now my home, as it is his.

The other meaning for hearth, though, is warmth.

Yes, LA is perpetually 70 degrees—even now, mid-December. But life, at times, can be particularly chilly. Every year, I experience some degree of human winter (even in the midst of palm trees and board shorts) and my rose-tinted glasses crack a little bit more. But my marriage has brought so much warmth to my life. I hope I never forget when Ben told me, maybe on the second night of our honeymoon, “You don’t have to fight anymore. I’ll keep you safe.” And I just let go of a burden I didn’t even know I was holding, and I just cried and cried, because I was coming out of a soul winter that I’d been blustering through.

And that is why my word, dear friend, is “hearth.” Because I am building my own warm home, a home that, as I promised Ben in our vows, “will be a safe haven from the hell of the world.”

What is your word of the year? Do you ever pick one? I’d love to hear!