Upside Down Cats

Today I'm revisiting an old friend...my Favorite Words series. The inspiration to write about today's word came from my Sweetie, Scott's recent post titled, Build Your Own Best Of - Steely Dan. His post is part of his series where he compiles a list of his personal choices for a Best Of collection of a musician's or a band's recordings.

I always have a running list of favorite words and this one has been on the list since its inception...

Continue reading "One Of My Favorite Words 3/27/08" »

My favorite word I'd like to write about today is Shalom.

In a very broad sense, it means "peace" in Hebrew.

Like a lot of my favorite words, though, it conveys so much more in itself than can be expressed with any one English word.

In addition to expressing the concept of peace, it can be used as a greeting, ("I greet you in peace"), a well-wish, ("peace to you") or a salutation, ("go in peace").

Peace is a deceptively complex concept. Once upon a time a little boy - 5 or 6 years old - in my daycare asked what "peace" meant...

I think he'd heard the word in a Christmas song..."Peace on Earth..."

Continue reading "One Of My Favorite Words 10/23/07" »

I have one of my favorite words for you:

Serendipity

I think the word serendipity expresses a beautiful idea. It means finding an unexpected good thing while looking for something else. It's an appealing thought that there are pleasant surprises in life and that things aren't preordained. It's a valuable concept for me to remember...that there could be a beautiful surprise just around the corner...

And a quote about Serendipity:

"Serendipity: Look for something, find something else, and realize what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for." - Lawrence Brooks

Do I get bonus points for combining two regular features into one fabulous post? It was rather serendipitous that I should be looking for a Gina's Quote Du Jour and surprisingly found one that contained One Of My Favorite Words to boot...don't you think?

I plan to make this a semi-regular feature on UDC.

Once in a while a word enters my life, and I think it's just a great word. I want to share those with the world. Here comes one now...

Namaste

This is a word I learned in the context of yoga. Namaste is a greeting/parting word (like aloha) which conveys respect for the person to whom it is spoken. It means "I bow to you." Most of the time it is accompanied by a slight bow of the head.

Click the word above to find out everything you ever wanted to know about namaste but were afraid to ask from Wikipedia.

Namaste, y'all,
Gina