Take a word.
Examine it from every perspective.
Pull it apart.
Put it back together again.
Look at its origins, its parents, its cousins.
Try it out in different languages.
Play with it.
Fight with it.
Live with it.
Put it aside;
Think of something else,
In order to let your subconscious mind surprise you with meaning.
Draw pictures.
Develop metaphors, similes, homonyms.
Use a dictionary, a thesaurus, Google.
Make lists.
Build mind maps.
Expand.
Contract.
Distill.
Seize one part.
The section with energy.
The phrase that speaks to you.
Say it out loud.
Shout it!
Sing it.
Feel it move against your tongue and teeth.
Lean into it.
Feel it push back.
Use your word in a sentence…
And another…
And another….
Search out quotes.
From classics.
From Scriptures.
From Holy Works.
From newspapers.
From speeches.
From songs.
From comics.
From poetry.
From a child’s rhyme.
Explore your understanding.
Delight in the way meaning changes,
Just as quartz changes color as it is rotated in the light.
Sit in darkness with your word.
Murmur it over and over,
As in Gregorian chant,
Feeling yourself in the quiet of a monastery,
Surrounded by centuries of meditation.
Take your word out to play.
Use it at the park,
Among running dogs and laughing children.
Shout it from the mountaintop with joy!
Bring it into the office.
Bark it out with the sharp, efficient edge of production.
Push it forward, always forward,
In unceasing capitalist motion.
Carry it back home, to your intimate spaces.
Use it to instruct your children.
To comfort your elders.
To love your spouse.
Does your word still have meaning?
Can it go with you through every step of life,
The highs, the lows,
The joy and the pain?
If, after all life throws at you,
Your word stands firm,
You have found
Truth.
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