Especially during this time of year, we are seeing, hearing and reading a lot of self-care infomercials about lowering holiday stress, albeit from shopping to cooking to entertaining family. We are also reminded that this is a season for giving, sharing and extending love. All of which are helpful, mindful and well met. Since so many have already spent so much time offering such wisdoms, I have decided to write something that will hopefully help you laugh a little (or a lot), relate to or not or maybe send you into a full-blown smirk.
A few mornings ago, I was jotting in my journal about my lovefor writing, stating: “I love it.”I immediately caught myself and began to wonder whether there is another word one can use to describe an overwhelming feeling of like beyond like besides love. A feeling that makes you tingle, when everything becomes doable, approachable, bearable, tangible, and on and on and on. What is that word that can substitute for the most over-used term of endearment (besides the term awesome, which will be my next blog)?
I never really took notice of how many “things” I loveuntil my wife brought it to my attention in a generalized sense. She said, “Why do people use the word loveto describe their attachment to so many activities, material things and inanimate objects?” It was then that I began to doubt the vastness of my vocabulary. Surely, I could find a word that expresses that feel-good-all-over, that rush of sensations one experiences when they feel love.
Well, I had had enough, I finally relented and sought guidance from an old friend—Roget’s Thesaurus…I just love that. Here are some ideas Roget offered: “to love is to enjoy, take pleasure in, be pleased with, receive or derive pleasure from, take delight, get a kick, or boot or bang or charge or lift or rush…like, love, adore, rejoice in, indulge in, luxuriate in, revel in, riot in, bask in, wallow in…” and so you catch my drift.
So, I am going to try some of these words and phrases. That’s right, I am going to stop using love as a verb cold turkey. I am looking at our Australian Labradoodle thinking I just love Doodles(there’s that “L” word again). Instead, I could say: I just get a kick from Doodles. Hmmm, I’m not loving that.