to nudge the world

Date September 4, 2008

I’m sitting at my desk. There’s a dictionary in front of me opened to the word “asinine” because I’d like to use it someday. There’s a battered Spanish/English dictionary as well and a thesaurus is tucked comfortably beneath it.

My journal is among the clutter. On the last page there are words and phrases scribbled that have just come to me. Some of them at night. Some in the morning. In the shower. On the road. In the midst of a crazy day.

Things like art and music and fate and love and timeless and limitless and a staggering sort of beauty.

A copy of A Child’s Anthology of Poetry is within reach. There are page markers hanging haphazardly from its edges. One is marking “Wynken, Blinken and Nod” and I think I’ll memorize it soon.

There’s also A Year Down Yonder, Love that Dog, and Tuck Everlasting. I’m enamored with those three titles and the braided words within them.

I don’t know when my fascination with words started. I’m sure that the story is buried somewhere and I hope it finds its way to the surface soon. But for now there are words in me and around me and there’s a tingling in my fingers that begs me to share them.

Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
-Tom Stoppard

3 Responses to “to nudge the world”

  1. Summer said:

    Fantastic post, Emily! I also share a fascination with words (clearly, or I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.) We have photos of me toddling around the house at age 1 pretending I could read. I think I must have been born loving words!

  2. Lou said:

    Enjoyed this post as always. Colton, I hope, is going to share this fascination. I catch him some times sitting with one of his little books pretending to read. It is a precious sight…and sound.

  3. Stephen said:

    That quote is replete with awesomeness.