About words

As I watch in disbelief how our human race  seemingly completely willingly marches towards the abyss, I think about words, how much they matter, how they can and do shape our thoughts and reality. And, at times, I feel completely hopeless (like today). And then I remember, I have a blog, which amplifies my small voice and I can use my voice for something good. 

For instance, just yesterday, as if to prove this point, it was reported that the current United States administration literally banned certain words from use in the official CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) documents. Those were good, real words such as “fetus," "transgender," "diversity”...  

And while good words are being banned, there are so many terrible, gut-wrenching words out there in our collective consciousness. Words such as “pedophile," "rape," "pervert," "treason," "genocide," "terror” and others are now part of our AND our children’s daily lexicon.  “Fake news” was named the “word of the year” by Collins Dictionary. 

In his book, Politics and the English Language, George Orwell, wrote: “[...] if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better. [...] This invasion of one's mind by ready-made phrases […] can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them.” These awful words pound my psyche with such furiousness that being “on guard” requires every ounce of my being. 

Elif Shafak, in her TED talk “The revolutionary power of diverse thought” says that words not only have an immense power to shape thoughts, but that words can have color and taste.

So this is the punch line of today's poorly written blog post: as an antidote to all this awfulness and darkness, I would like to remind myself and anyone who comes across this blog of all the good, sturdy, positive and inspiring words.

I invite all of you to a feast of some lovely words, some my favorite words in English language. I invite you to taste them together with me, say them out loud, guard them, paint the world with their beauty, and share them with others. Let these words go deep into the soul of our universal consciousness and grow in the most unexpected and wonderful directions from there.

Here we go!

•         Abundance

•         Courage

•         Deliberately  

•         Doer

•         Eloquence

•         Freedom

•         Gratitude

•         Grace

•         Handling it

•         Heartwarming

•         Harmony

•         Helpful

•         Home 
     Hope

•         Integrity

•         Kindness

•         Laughter

•         Love

•         Mindful

•         Passion

•         Persistence

•         Possible

•         Resilience 

•         Serendipity          

•         Spiritual

•         Soulful

•         Sweet

•         Together 

•         Transcendence

•         World-wide