At the beginning of 2022, I made a series of blog posts on my choice of my One Little Word intended to sharpen my focus throughout the year as a challenge for personal growth. My word choice was Listen. You can read my OLW posts here, here, and here, which share the OLWs chosen – and the reasons – by friends and family as well.
Listen was selected to be like a little toy poodle with a pink collar and blingy-bougie leash, cleanly groomed, smelling of strawberry rosebud shampoo, daintily prancing all sure-footed, the kind you could take with confidence into a china shop, knowing there’d be no damages.
Instead, my word turned out a lot like that great dane in the movie The Ugly Dachshund that was secretly slipped into a litter of dachshunds as if no one would be the wiser, until the truth became clear. Listen is no strawberry poodle word – it follows me like a clumsily lumbering beast into fragile places that force me to take careful steps, assessing the catastrophic potential for any missteps.
Words are like that ~ like beams of sunlight through a dense canopy of trees ~ illuminating the dark places in random rays of light on the leaves, bringing awe and wonder to moments that may otherwise go unnoticed. Words have power to show, to guide, and to prompt change, understanding, and compassion in our lives. As I write through August and September, I’ll pause daily using Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters and consider the power of words to shape my life, dedicating a day to each of these words and considering other words I might add to my own personal lexicon for change:
acceptance, ally, belonging, compassion, courage, create, dialogue, diversity, dream, empathy, equality, exercise, experiment, forgiveness, freedom, fuel, gratitude, hate, hope, humility, intention, justice, kindness, laughter, listen, love, mindfulness, nature, netiquette, open, pause, peace, question, reach, release, respect, service, shero, team, tenacity, upstander, voice, vulnerable, witness, wonder, xenial, yes, and zest.
If you haven’t read this book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship, sharing insights on the words and the response opportunities that the authors create in the book.
Common Threads 
I love reading your reflection here. That book is one of my absolute favorites! I bought it for my team two years ago and last year our whole poetry unit centered around poems from the book (it is also available on Epic, so every student had ready access to it). I have written off of many poems from the book and find it so inspirational! On Charles Waters YouTube you can see him read all the poems he wrote for the book. Great choice!
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Erika, WOW! Thank you for that amazing resource. I’m going to check him out and link some of his videos to my posts. You just shared a gold nugget of discovery, and I am so appreciative. I love Charles Waters’ and Irene Latham’s stories of connection throughout the book. It makes me think of how when we go in a Pre-K class or Kindergarten class and we read a story, every hand goes up with a story about a kitten when we read about it and see a picture. Such enthusiasm! By the end of middle school, it’s like pulling teeth to get a student to want to share a kitten connection – or any connection. That’s one of the reasons I believe that this book is such a rich resource – it offers something for everyone, including reluctant writers, because the connections are modeled in a way that students can understand the process. Thank you, Erika.
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First, your comparison of listen to the two dogs is gorgeous writing. I personally struggle to write in metaphor and appreciate your brillance here. I do own the book you mention and am intrigued by your “personal book friendship” invite. I may give it a try and who knows, maybe the time for me to start writing metaphorically is just around the bend. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you, Sally, for reading and commenting with words of encouragement today. I’m packing my suitcase now for this journey of discovery starting on August 1st. I welcome the opportunities to look for insights of positive words along the way as I read and live and reflect. I sketched a plan of words in today’s blog, linked to days of celebration. I’m ready to set sail, and would love to hear how the book and the words are making a difference in your life.
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I have this book! I am chuckling at your word, Listen, following you like an ungainly Great Dane (I still have to watch this movie. Gonna do it this week!) I adore this sentence: “Words are like that ~ like beams of sunlight through a dense canopy of trees ~ illuminating the dark places in random rays of light on the leaves, bringing awe and wonder to moments that may otherwise go unnoticed.” The writer notices with the intention to keep in the light.
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Fran, thank you as always for the encouraging words you always share. I enjoy our frequent ways of connecting over words and experiences. I loved your hummingbird piece today. You have such a gift of writing about place and sensory awareness. Birds are definitely your spirit animals, and that hummingbird feeder will captivate Scout and Micah too!
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Your metaphor for listen- the poodle and the Great Dane- was so fabulous! The writing here was very striking and beautiful. I love the book you reference- Dictionary for a Better World- and am curious about your challenge. I can’t wait to read more!
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Thank you, Kathleen, I have a road map sketched for my journey through the book and can’t wait to see where all it takes me. I am hoping that you will share any insights and ideas with me. I’m so glad you visited today, and I appreciate your kind words!
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Kim, I love this idea, and I’m grateful for the words you listed. I’ve had this book on my TBR a long time and still wonder how I’ve lasted this long w:out it. You are an e cells t listener. You notice every word, written or spoken, and you listen w/ your whole body, which is not an easy thing to do. I’m lucky to know you here, via our poetry group, and in luther virtual and real spaces.
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Thank you, Glenda! Join me in reading and reflecting on it for the months of August and September! It’s definitely a book to be savored bite by bite. The blessings of knowing you as a kindred soul is all mine! Thank you for your encouragement today and always! I sketched a plan on today’s post for looking at each word on a day of celebration!
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Great idea! I love this book!
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Thank you, Diane!
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I am leading a workshop, my second, exploring this title. It is brilliant, inspiring, and you spectacularly demonstrate its usefulness. If you are amenable, I will share your blog when I present in October. (Truthfully, I look at my discovering this post as a fateful one.)
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Trish, thank you so much for your encouraging words. I would love to see all the places the book has taken you with your workshop! In today’s post (the one I shared was yesterday’s), I have sketched a plan for savoring each word on a day of celebration. Absolutely you may share my blog! I’m open to collaborating and also sharing your ideas on my blog.
I’m so happy to meet you!
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Your powerful writing and unique use of metaphor pulled me right into this slice. Where have I been that I’ve not heard of this book? It sounds like a “must-read” and probably another “must-own”. I love books like this and will check it out. Good luck on your journey!
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Thank you, Rita. Penny Kittle featured this book in last year’s Book Love Summer Reading Club, and I’ve kept returning to it all year. It offers so many opportunities for response, and it fascinates me that words can bring so many ways of connecting us and inspiring us. Thanks for reading today. I know that you will love this book!
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Like Sally said, that is some brilliant writing! It makes me want to write something in a similar vein about my word SIMPLIFY. Boy, this was not the year of simplifying for me, and I think I may have to keep that word again for next year. I did order Dictionary for a Better World, and I will look forward to joining you, Kim!
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Thank you, Denise! I know what you mean about the nonword barging through the wall like the KoolAid man, taking Simplify to task. Fran Haley kept the same
word again this year as last year. Two years of awe. I’ve had a half year of attempted Listen and I’m starved for a party of different guest words. It has been a lot like praying for patience – our words really do test us. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you enjoy the book and am thrilled you will join me in celebrating each word!
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