Sunday Chronicles: Words

Investment Piece: Words

Some various contradictions? I don’t think of myself as a writer. A storyteller? Yes. But if asked I’ll tell you that I use fashion to tell my stories. Yet. I write about them. Blog posts, picture captions, the whys, the how’s of all my outfits- I do write. And. Admittedly, I have some bad writing habits. I use the word “amazing” way too often. The thing is many times, many outfits, many amazings are different. I can tell you something is amazing and mean that it fits perfectly or that it makes me feel strong or that it’s a standout. Yes, I need a thesaurus. Or to be more exact.

Our words mean things, and the way we use them means things, and I’ve been thinking about that recently. Yes, Mercury is Retrograde (if you’re into that sort of thing) which is a great time to reasses and review our communication.

What got me thinking about words: how we use them and what we mean, was a friend’s Facebook post. He was posting about his daughter’s graduation and college acceptance. Yes, he was bragging, and yes he should as his daughter is a delight. But. He called her quirky. I truly admire his daughter, she has a strong sense of self as a teenager and doesn’t concern herself with what people “think” she should be doing. I know what her dad meant by quirky was all of that- that she’s self assured and strong in herself and not worried about being a Teen-Movie-Perfect teen. Me? I take quirky to mean all the weird and bad things- if you called me quirky I would assume that you thought I was so strange and almost unlike-able but wanted to be nice about it. Even though words have meanings, we all take different words to mean different things.

So. When we (me) can overuse the same word or when we all have different meanings for the same word, how do we use our words to communicate with each other? I’m still working that out. There are times when I feel as if words are my best friends and writing comes easy; I feel confident that I communicated my words well. Then there are times when I call everything amazing and I’m crossing my fingers that my words are taken in the best way.

In a time when it can be advisable to be intentional with our words, I’m thinking about my words. What I mean and how to be more exact with them. I’m also thinking about other people’s words- and thinking about asking for clarification when I don’t get other’s words- and giving them the benefit of the doubt that they always mean the best things, as I do. I’m pledging to be better with my words, to watch them and to get out my thesaurus when I need it.

How do you use your words?

Wishing us all a week of good communication and amazing shoes! Xo RA