The Word Is Penguin

I wasn’t going to choose a Word of the Year. Again. I struggled with choosing a word last year, too. I ended up with EASE, which, every time I thought about it over the last 12 months, stuck it’s tongue out at me. Hahahahaha. Not. I don’t want to be taunted by my word again this year. I decided to abdicate from the WOTY process (though my fellow bloggers have offered many lovely words here).

Then, lying in bed last night, my word came to me. PENGUIN. The thought started with this. What can I write about this month that will allow me to share the cute penguin photos from my South Africa sojourn over the holidays? This led me to think about penguin-ness. What it is about penguins, especially the knee-high penguins in sunny climes, not on polar ice, which is so irresistibly charming that even the coolest, most blasé, jaded, seen-it-all person will be delighted. (Side note movie recommendation: The Penguin Lessons. How a pet penguin can make you a better person, even or especially when living under an oppressive regime, such as Argentina in the 70s.)

Penguin-ness is that unique combination of utter grace in the water and goofy awkwardness on land. Not to mention the transition from swimming to standing in the shallows, which seems to involve making a tripod with their wings (more like flippers) and then walking forward. The way we walk forward out of a downward dog. Except the last bit of the journey to standing, when the penguins’ wings pop out of the sand and, Weeble-like, they pop upright.

Awkward grace. Graceful awkwardness. This is the essence of penguin-ness. Capturing the art of being with what is in life. The grace of so many moments. The awkwardness of so many of the very next moments. Their inextricability. The impossibility of constant grace. The inevitability of goofs … and grace.

Can I live into my penguin-ness this year? Goof or grace. Awkward or elegant. Prosaic or sublime. Be with what is. In this moment. And this one that comes next.