Rainbows and Words

Relationships are hard and I am experiencing the ups and downs of relearning how to be in one.  However, every day now I am reminded about the delights of being truly connected to another human being.  Beyond the big stuff … travel, family, garden projects, movies, sex and so on … there are those grain-of-sand moments that amaze and delight me.

In a few weeks, I'll be off to Mexico for several weeks of language intensive, so my Spanish-fluent, language- and word-oriented partner often offers bits and pieces to help my progress.  This morning's conversation involved the definition of "bow" … arco … and then moved to "rainbow."  I know the word for "rain" … lluvia … so I guessed arco de lluvia.  

Wrong … thinking like an English speaker, logical, left-brained, rather than metaphorical, right-brained.  The Spanish word for "rainbow" is arco iris … an honoring of Iris, the messenger goddess who links the gods and humanity, rather than a simple description of a meteorological event.

Somehow the difference in words for one common event struck me and reminded me of the cycle of language and culture.  Which creates which? Do words arise out of our common culture, or does our culture arise out of our words?  Most likely both, however, it seems to me that looking at the bright spectrum of color that accompanies a rainy day and thinking "rainbow" creates a different perspective and feeling state than looking at the same wonder and thinking "arco iris"

I am looking forward to delving into a new language, not only for the ability to communicate in a new way but also for the different perspectives of the world that new words might bring.

Olalaberry Lonesome

Last night I picked up "Ordinary Genius," a book on poetry by Kim Addonizio,  It's been on my bookshelf for a long time, but shortly after I opened it, I realized I was famished … starving … hungry … no more like … lonesome for words.  One word … olalaberry … broke open the memory of that sweet tickle of words on my tongue and in my mind.  Suddenly I longed for words ... ambergris ... aardvark ... adenoids ...alchemy ... antediluvian ...anthropomorphic … annihilate ….  Words like lost lovers began to call to me … come play with me … .

Kim suggested an exercise of making a list of our 50 favorite words and later making a poem from them … so here's the start of my list … please share some of your favorite words … let's feed each other … let's make it a game … I'll start with five and you can add five but they must be different than mine or any others added here.  I've decided to start with 5 "j" words … you might limit yours to one letter also … or just play ... gambol ... romp ... cavort ... revel ... frolic ... fiddle ... trifle ... have fun!

The start of my list:

joy

juxtaposition

jubilation

justice

jump

Words for the Year

Every year I pick a word (sometimes two) as my talisman for the year.  I decorate a plain, black 9"x12" journal with the words and as much glitter glue and paint as I can pile on it.  It's a tradition started years ago when I lived in Santa Barbara and discovered my first word while driving through a residential area. When I spotted an old, rusted RV with the word "Jubilation" painted across the back, I fell in love with the word and chose it as my first journal word.  Or, perhaps, it chose me.

Usually I start trying to find my word in mid-December and have time to contemplate several words before settling in to one or two.  This year, I've been moving too fast for the past several weeks to think about my word. So I made a date with myself today and thought I'd use this post to focus my attention.

Now I'm sitting here with my journals circling me as I think about 2012, a leap year, and what words call to me.  I often note words in the back of my journal so I'm flipping through the old ones and the following possibilities appear:

• Exuberance -- joyous vitality
• Reflection -- being a clear mirror of spirit and joy
• Quest -- an adventurous seeking for something of value - I like the connection to question
• Mandala -- a symbol of sacred peace and the reunification of self
• Zest -- passion for life
• Dayenu -- Hebrew -- it would have been enough

After much tea and thought, the choices for words to guide me during 2012 are "quest" because I want to continue learning, exploring, seeking new experiences that help me better understand the world and myself ... and "dayenu" because I want to remember every day how overwhelmingly grateful I am for all that I have been given and to remember that even a fraction of it would have been enough and that I do not need more.  There seems to be a lovely tension between these two words.

FYI: here are the words for the past few years ... and if you decide to choose a word or words, I'd love to know what yours are.

• 2011 - Temenos, sacred space. Carl Jung used this same word to refer to the inner space deep within us where soul-making takes place.  Hallelujah -- as in the words from Leonard Cohen's song, "nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!
• 2010 - Beauty and Equanimity (complete with a mindmap of things that nourish equanimity)
• 2009 - Miksang (Tibetan for "good eye" and a photography process that involves a deeper way of seeing, and Abbondanza - joyful abundance
• 2008 - Chrysalis -- a place of deep transformation which cannot be seen until it emerges
• 2007 - Autopoiesis -- continually re-creating and organizing self in relationship to surroundings
• 2006 - Joy and Dreamway ... the title of a book by Robert Genn
• 2005 - Emergence
• 2004 - Querencia - a calm and quiet, yet powerful, place of safety