My One Word, wordled. Or rather, my 49 One Words, as decided by you (duplicates were eliminated) and then transcribed into Wordle for the purposes of making a word cloud, which is so last-month-media, but still. Note that I opted to include the word ‘moist,’ despite my deep aversion to it, for the simple reason that a) it was suggested, and b) human beings are 98% water, so it’s probably accurate.

There were some words that were suggested a few times over – open, honest, impassioned/passionate, smart, strong – and I love those words. I also love Catherine J‘s suggestion of ‘Catherine Wheel‘ – which strictly speaking isn’t one word, but two, unless you hyphenate it, which I think that you can do with any words, really – and Annie‘s coinage of ‘philoso-activista,’ which I – being a transliteration-of-ancient-Greek geek, tweaked as ‘philosopho-activista’ – and Alli‘s sensible insistence upon ‘complex’… I love all of these words, really, with the obvious exception of the word ‘moist,’ and can see using all of them. But after reflecting upon all these words, and the ones that I had jotted down, secretly, in my Little Black Notebook Of Words That Don’t Go On The Internet, I settled upon this:

Searching.

Just that. Searching. Searching my heart, searching my mind, searching love, searching (for) hope, searching (for) reason, searching (for) whatever it is that lays beyond reason. Searching for ways to make things better, searching for understanding about the things that don’t lend themselves to conversations about ‘better.’ Just, you know, searching.

Which, yes, I know: ‘searching,’ like ‘authenticity’ and ‘connect,’ is a word that might cause cavities if you hold it in your mouth too long. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t the best word, or, at least, the best word for now.

That, and ‘moist.’

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Random addenda:

– I was interviewed by Technorati for their State Of The Blogosphere series. I said stuff.

– Babble named me one of their top mom bloggers, again. I’m sandwiched between the inspiring Karen Walrond and the seriously just-so-lovely Rebecca Woolf, friends both, and that – and the rest of my company on that list – makes this, for me, a real honor. If you check out their list, though, be sure to check out their nomination page and get to know some of the amazing blogs that are cropping up there. And nominate someone who deserves to be known a little better, or a lot better, because, really, there’s room enough for bajillions of us in any celebration of who and what we are. And we’re all better off for making that room as open and inclusive and welcoming as we can. (Also, check out the Canadian Mom Bloggers list that we did last year at The Bad Moms Club for some of the Canuck blogs you should be getting to know. Maybe we’ll do it again this year. If I ever catch up on my sleep.)

– I wanna help this mom, and her boy. Please help me help this mom, and her boy.