There you are, wounded prey on display. The enemy swoops in and takes advantage of a weak moment when your head bobbed too far above the shelter of the ground. His talons tighten and the clutch cuts off your hope. In vulnerability, you find yourself ensnared, limp in the grip.

I hobbled into 2023 knowing I had been emotionally bruised by the thrashing of 2022. As I limped into January, I feared my “word of the year.” After all, choosing a word at the start of each year is not like picking a sweater off the rack or a meal off a menu.