Sitting in the Uncertainty: Embracing Unraveling as a Theme for 2025

Why 'Unraveling' Is My Word for 2025 and What I Think It Means for Us All

Unknown Artist

"Unraveling" is a potent and evocative word. It conjures images of a tightly woven fabric coming undone, thread by thread, revealing both the intricacies of its construction and the vulnerability of its unmaking. If I had to name a word for the world this year, it would be unraveling. For years, I’ve been choosing words for myself as a theme for the year—words that seem to arrive when I need them most to guide me through the upcoming year and help me prioritize.

These words don’t come from deliberation but from a deep, intuitive place, as if they’ve been waiting just out of reach until I’m ready to notice them. When the right word reveals itself, I feel a quiet certainty, almost physical—a sense of recognition. This year, for the first time, I felt that same distinct feeling—not just for myself, but for the world around me.

"Unraveling" encapsulates a dual reality: the sense of dissolution and loss that can accompany change, and the opportunity to confront, understand, and reweave what has been exposed. In a world marked by increasing division, uncertainty, and crisis, it is crucial that we sit in this unraveling, acknowledging the discomfort and insecurity that comes with being in the unknown before we can begin the work of reweaving.

It’s a word that speaks to the tension between fear and possibility, between what has been and what might yet emerge. And as I look around—at the ecological, social, and political crises already unfolding this year—it feels both prescient and inescapable.

We are facing a time of profound disintegration—not just of systems, but of the stories we’ve told ourselves about who we are and how we are meant to live together. From political fragmentation to ecological collapse, the threads of our collective fabric are coming undone. This unraveling, however, is not merely a loss; at this point, it is a necessary step before a new world can emerge. But before we rush to heal and try to reweave, we must sit with the truth of this moment.

The unraveling we are experiencing—whether on a global scale or in our individual lives—calls for a reckoning. We cannot keep turning a blind eye to the ways we have been complicit in systems of dehumanization. We cannot pretend that the burning world outside our doors (literally and metaphorically) is someone else’s problem. It is all of ours.

This time invites us not just to examine the brokenness of our systems, but to question the deeper, more insidious forces that have shaped our lives—the myths of individualism, accumulation, and success that often blind us to our shared humanity.

At the heart of it all is a larger truth: the systems that uphold individualism and commodification ultimately dehumanize us. In a world defined by the pursuit of personal gain and the commodification of human lives, we are conditioned to ignore the suffering of those who do not share in our success, or whose experiences challenge the myths of progress that we cling to. The result is a widening chasm of inequality and a failure to recognize the inherent dignity of those who are left at the margins—the people whose needs, voices, and stories are often silenced or disregarded. The belief in upward mobility and personal success has led us to a place where we see others as obstacles to our own progress rather than as fellow human beings with intrinsic value and shared struggles.

This illusion of safety—rooted in the myth of personal triumph—blinds us to the deeper truth: that our well-being is inextricably tied to the collective. The unraveling forces us to confront the uncomfortable realities of our world, where success is often measured by individual accumulation, and those who fall outside of this narrow measure bear the weight of systemic oppression and neglect. The dominant narrative teaches us to value personal achievement above all, but in doing so, it obscures the immense suffering that lies hidden behind the walls of privilege.

As we face this unraveling, we are called to reckon with the dehumanizing forces that perpetuate these divisions—forces that have long kept us separate from one another. These forces tell us that we rise or fall alone. But if we can resist the pull of self-interest and the fleeting satisfaction of instant gratification, we can begin to envision a different kind of world—one built on shared responsibility, mutual care, and collective liberation.

I believe this deeply. Beneath the ruptures we see, there is an opening—a shift that holds the possibility of transformation. This is not a new idea. Indigenous communities have long understood and lived this way, supporting one another through shared care, reciprocity, and a profound sense of interconnection. It is already happening—and has been happening—in these communities, and in pockets all over the world, where people are stepping up to provide the care and solidarity that larger institutions have failed to offer. In these moments of coming together, we glimpse a different way forward, one that values connection over competition, empathy over efficiency, and care over profit.

If we can sit with the discomfort and uncertainty of the unknown, we will come to realize that the path forward is through the reclamation of collective care. It is in this shared humanity that we will find the strength to heal and reweave the fabric of our world.

The work of reweaving the world cannot begin until we have truly faced what is. It is not just the breakdown of systems, but the breakdown of the very myths that have shaped our lives. Only by acknowledging the pain, the loss, and the injustice that has been perpetuated by these myths can we begin the difficult work of healing. In 2025 and beyond, we are invited to sit with the unraveling—not as a finality, but as a necessary step toward collective liberation. We must embrace the discomfort of this moment, for it is through it that we will find the strength to rebuild—on a foundation of shared humanity, mutual respect, and collective responsibility.

Anyways, these are the thoughts that keep me tossing and turning at 2 a.m., so I figured I’d write them down somewhere in the hopes of being in conversation with you—because I can’t be the only one up at this hour, right? :)

My personal word for this year is 'discernment,' which makes a lot of sense in light of the continuous chaos we're living through. Where we direct our attention and energy, how we tend to our friends, family, communities, neighborhoods, and our own spiritual well-being—these are all of utmost importance.

I will try to move through the unraveling with discernment, understanding that this is not the end of the story, but a necessary phase in the creation of something new.

We must think beyond crisis. Together. I chose “unraveling” over words like “crumbling” because it implies that repair is possible—that the fibers, even as they come undone, can be woven together again.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading through my diary, basically lol, and thank you for being you.