We use words to express our hopes and dreams. Sometimes those words are only used to ourselves or to a close loved one.  My sons have expressed their hopes and dreams to me over the years and I’ve rejoiced in every one of them. From the 2yr old “wanna be a worker man mom” to 17 yr old “I’m gonna be a rock star” they’ve let me know where their heads are at, they’ve given me clues on how to relate to them and above all have brought a smile to my face then and now. My children have given me wonderful words over the years that gave me a pick me up at the time and never fail to bring a smile to my face when I remember them now. Who wouldn’t smile at being asked “Hey Mom..if God is Jesus’ father, who is his grandfather?” Words are worth gold!

A single word or a set of words making up a phrase can instantly transport us back in time. For instance, the word hippie , for me,  brings to mind an entire generation with all its wonder and angst. When I hear the word hippie I see girls in peasant blouses, and long skirts, with beads in their hair and little flowers painted on their cheeks. I see young men with guitars slung on their backs, and sandals on their feet. I also hear news anchors reporting on body counts in Vietnam. Pretty powerful images for a single word.

Hearing a very tinny sounding Neil Armstrong stating “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” immediately puts me back in the living room of my childhood home watching the first man step foot on the moon. I remember the summer night and feeling resentful because my parents insisted we stop playing outside to come in and watch history being made. Resentful then, abundantly thankful now. What do you remember from a single word?

Words are not only the heart and soul of a book, they are how we communicate…”Hey how ya doing?”  “Where’s the library?” “How do you get to the office?” Words are how we educate. What would a teacher be without his/her words? People use words to pontificate, “Four score and seven years ago….” they use words to instruct “ you’re going to take that hoojet and then take the dohickie and connect to the whatsit and there you have it!”…..Did you get all that?

Whether words are shouted out loud from rooftops in joy or pain, whether they are whispered tenderly in a loved one’s ear, rasped as last words, sung in a song or spoken with a soft southern drawl…. they do incredible things. Words deliver love, praise and happiness, they convey compassion and sorrow, sadly they also express hate and anger.

Words can quickly conjure up memories. How many of us remember words our parents said to us from our childhood? I remember clearly my father saying to me while chastising me for using foul language “An intelligent person can find a better way to say it” (smart man my dad). There truly are thousands of ways to say the same thing without resorting to foul, offensive language. I’ve found more often than not over the years the words I’ve used instead of those foul ones have garnered me better results in virtually all situations. A heartfelt “Holy Moly” is way less offensive than “Holy Sh*t”. “Criminy Chickets” diffused more situations than “WTF”. Try it yourself. It takes a bit of practice but oh my it’s worth it to see the expressions on people’s faces when they hear the unexpected…..

Using just the 26 letters of the English alphabet we have created 171,476 words considered to be in current use while another 47,156 are considered obsolete. Add to these two numbers approximately 9,500 derivative words and we have nearly a quarter of a million words to fill the 2^nd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Words are simply amazing. Think about it for a moment…a quarter of a million words which when listed in a dictionary are fairly innocent, drab, even boring perhaps. They sit there on a page minding their own business not doing much of anything at all until someone like you or me takes notice. When we take a few hundred of those words, jumble them up, throw in some punctuation, some vocal variety, some pauses, the right inflection of the right syllable, voila..you have speech. Or arrange a few thousand words, mix in some more of that punctuation stuff, put the words to paper, print the pages, bind them together and a book is born. How simple yet complex…words are like that.

How we put the words together, the order in which we write or say them is much like creating music. No two compositions are quite the same. You may think a piece of literature is familiar at the start but somewhere along the line a plot twists, an event happens and all of a sudden you have a whole new story….

Well, I did it….I actually posted a story on the net. Anothers’ small step is my giant leap. I hope you enjoyed reading my “Stick in the eye” adventure. It really did happen and I really don’t look for balls in the woods anymore but I definitely still play golf. It’s too much fun(?) to give up.

Thank you to those who have already subscribed to my blog, I truly appreciate your company on my journey I was talking to a couple of Toastmaster friends the other night and was telling them about my blog and commented that I wasn’t quite sure what focus I wanted for this blog. One of my colleagues said “Why does there have to be a specific focus?” Of course, that comment set me to thinking…..when I’ve finished ruminating on that, I’ll let you know what I figure out

As with any setback in life, this one came with some valuable lessons. Among them….

I have not found a better way to have my boss insist I go home and relax then coming in to the office wearing a baseball cap pulled down over my forehead and sunglasses covering my eyes.

My teenage son was very thankful for the extra driving practice chauffeuring me around for a week gained him.

I’ve completely overcome my compulsion to find every hidden golf ball on the courses I play and finally, I’ll never forget the most important tip in golf - KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL!!