The Comfort of Certain Words and Terms

There are certain words that are pleasing to my ear.  I like the sound of them; I enjoy saying them out loud.  And, in at least one case, where the meaning isn't the most positive thing ever, the way my tongue has to get wrapped around it for it to come out well, usually makes me smile.

I'll start with that one: forlorn.  Just listen to that: forlorn. It calls such attention to itself, does it not?  The word demands that you spend time with it; that you caress, not only the syllables, but the shape of every letter.  And, listen to that pretty double 'or', making it all sexy up in here. To think, the meaning is nowhere near that, but no matter. Forlorn is, hands down, one of my favourite words. Most times when I do use it, it's to ask my lil sis how come she sounds so forlorn?  And, I'd say about 95% of the times, just the use and sound of the word causes us to smile. It's quite a picker upper.  Forlorn. :-)

Another fave is: relax.  Recently I've found myself saying it out loud - not screaming, just saying it a couple times, moving it from my mind to without. Even as I say it, my shoulders release their tension; I consciously breathe deeper and exhale longer.  And, I feel calmer.  I'm usually praying for God to guide me, especially when I find I'm getting anxious about something or just have way too much to do. I'm thankful for the presence of mind to utter the word; to focus on the directive and for the calm and peace that accompanies it. It sure helps when you know that you can, in fact, relax because you're "not in this alone" - whatever "this" is.  #HeGotThis

"Watch dis!"  Now, there's a term I've come to love. The meaning behind it is awesome. The story behind it is pretty lengthy, too. But, I'm gonna try to capture the gist. My lil sis coined the phrase when she and I were just about to be caught up in a very sensitive, high-stress situation with heavy repercussions. I had been feeling rather apprehensive about the whole situation; so forlorn. In that moment before it was "gonna go down", a question was asked; we gave a response and we were then redirected.  I know this might be as clear as mud - wish I could be clearer.  Suffice it to say, after we finished getting our instructions from the new set of folks, we made it back to the original set of folks.  As it turned out, they totally overlooked asking us for what they should have - but what I so did not have, and should have had, on my person - and they just waved us on our way.  Shortly after we left that area, trying somehow to wrap our minds around what had just happened, my sis said, "It was as if God just said, "It's ok. Watch dis!" Then went straight to work on our behalf. Of course, we shared the episode with the rest of the family. Since then, it has been a constant source of encouragement in the most trying of times. There's no need to go through the story, of course. All we need say is, "Watch dis!" And we get it.

Remember that movie, "In Her Shoes"? Remember that poem by e.e. cummings that Maggie read for Rose toward the end in the wedding scene? Remember that line in the poem "I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)"? Isn't it just precious? I think so. So simple yet, so everything. Sigh. Once, I used a variation of it for someone dear to me. My version was, "I carry you in my heart." I didn't quite remember the line, but  I figured that was close enough. It is a beautiful sentiment. (The rest of the poem is lovely, too. :-)

I imagine you have your own words that stir up whatever feelings/emotions that they do. I really hope that the good ones far outweigh the not-so-cool ones. After all, there are so many of them - in so many different languages! Here's to comfort - in your own words and in your own terms.



Claudia
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