I love words. So when the world feels like it is falling apart, I look for the words that will help me keep it together. Words that help me make sense of things, stay just the tiniest bit grounded, or remind me of who I am, why I’m here, and how I want to show up in the world, no matter how messed up it seems. Never has that been more true than now. As 2025 unfolds before us a new administration is soon to be at the helm of our floundering American ship, wildfires rage, and division and disinformation run rampant.

I need some words upon which to hang my well-worn hat.

As it turns out, I might only need one word.

It’s a new word. As in a newly, never-before-heard word, coined by our almost seven year old grandson.

He’s had a bit of a rough go of it for the past little while. Add your regular run of the mill sniffles, coughs, and ear infections to interrupted sleeps by everyone in the house. Throw in a newly discovered allergy to dust mites requiring an overhaul of almost everything, and then top it all off with a broken collarbone. That’s a lot to manage under one roof, much less in the body of a little boy.

One morning, after a particularly rough night, his mom gave him a big scoop of coconut cream, a favorite in anyone’s book who has even a modicum of taste. Savoring all that creamy goodness in the midst of the mess, out popped the word.

Hullabloojah!

As our daughter noted, it’s the perfect combination of gratitude in the midst of chaos.

Hullabloojah!

I love that word.

Hullabloojah!

Life is never one thing. It is always a mixture of the good, the bad, and the seriously ugly. Prone as we are to camp on the bad, the scary, the ugly, the imagined, or the dreaded, we need a word to shake us up and bring us back to ourselves. A word upon which we can hang our well-worn hats, come what may.

Hullabloojah!

(Written with gratitude for Cai and the best word ever.)