To get in to graduate school for speech-language pathology, I had to take the Graduate Record Examination. As soon as I found out I passed, I made plans to rid myself of the bulky workbooks and the memories they held of torturous evening classes and daily practice. But I knew I would not throw out the vocabulary flashcards. Those were a gift. I couldn’t believe my luck when I found out that an entire section of the exam was based on vocabulary words: their definitions, usage and related words. We get to play word games?! Almost made up for the math. Almost.
Anyway, this morning I pulled out the stack of about 200 cards from between my literary journals and my copy of the 2009 Writer’s Market and shuffled them up. For fun, I pulled out 3 cards. Today I’m challenging you to use at least one of these words in writing or conversation…particularly if you don’t use it normally. If these words happen to be a part of your lexicon already, choose one that you don’t use or don’t know the meaning of. Get to know the meaning and then be bold! Throw the word into a conversation with a colleague, your neighbour, your spouse. Toss it into your work-in- progress if you’re a writer. How did it work for you?
Here are the words:
1. taciturn: silent, not talkative
2. prevaricate: to lie or deviate from the truth
3. propitiate: to conciliate, to appease
If you like this sort of thing, I encourage you to make it a daily practice. You can click here to learn a new word every day!
If you’d like to inspire others with this post, please pass it on with some social media love. If you don’t see the buttons below, click on the title of this post and they will magically appear at the bottom.
This post has nothing to do with the topic, but I just felt like sharing some of this morning’s beauty with you.
It’s Wednesday morning and the start of another beautiful Spring day. After dropping my daughter at school I was heading for a quiet morning coffee at a secluded little shop within sight of the water, when added traffic from some construction project changed my peaceful plans. Somewhat frustrated, I turned around and went home to fix my own wake up cup, pulled into the driveway and as I got out of the car was met by one of the blessings that my big, quiet back yard offers; a family of deer who frequent this part of the suburbs. I watched their routine for about a half hour then came in and wrote a little poem for them.
They grace my yard again today
As they wander on their way
The apple trees, their favorite stop
As if it were their private crop
A doe with babies, one and two
A peaceful sight for me and you
Secluded lawn, they choose to rest
It seems our yard’s among the best
Breakfast, nap, and now they rise
With flicking ears and blinking eyes
They amble off, beyond the hedge
Into the forest’s trailing edge
I know that soon, they will return
Through my bushes, flowers and ferns
To bring my morning added cheer
While they rest, away from fear
My back yard is about a half acre, only occasionally mowed, and surrounded by cedar hedges which haven’t seen a full trim in at least 3 years. Fruit trees are dispersed among the swings, play sets and a few garden projects which await completion.
Somehow I believe that the animals appreciate my lack of ongoing maintenance as it affords them a slightly more natural setting in this over populated region of their former wilderness.
There’s a certain pleasure which comes from watching the animals that share our place of residence. They walk in casually and look around, then eat or groom or simply rest a while.
From the assortment of tiny mice and moles to the families of deer, sometimes five of them at a time, to the lone male coyote hoping to spot one of the dozens of rabbits or squirrels who also live here, it is a little nature conservancy right outside my window. Humming birds to eagles and nearly every winged creature in between, join in the blessing that is our community.
Enjoy your day.
Hi Richard – we should really talk about setting up your blog 🙂 I think you’ll enjoy sharing your words that way. Thanks for taking the time to comment here and for reading my posts. Have a great day!
After adding my story and poem about the deer, I re-read the topic and tossed this together. Not sure how much sense it makes to everyone, but it sort of fell together for me.
Propitiate
A word I hate
It seems the seal
Of my fate
If I give in
I can not win
Resign my soul
Ignore the sin
It’s not about
Who can shout
Be the loudest
Leave no doubt
Don’t hesitate
To mark this date
As I concede
Propitiate
Thanks, Richard – are you collecting these somewhere?