Only words

According to a clinical professor of psychiatry in California 'a woman speaks around 20,000 words per day while a man uses 7,000'. I think I might have something to say about that! Apparently the actual figures are up for debate, but it is generally agreed that women have more to say than men.

I love words and am currently fascinated by how they change their meaning over time. Like 'sick', for example, which used to mean sick and now means something really good!

Yesterday I saw a child's alphabet drawings which have inspired me to do a blog alphabet of words to describe God - and certainly there you can find lots of words which over time have changed their meanings. Let's see how it goes!

'A' is for 'awesome'.  Very helpfully (not!) a dictionary definition says it means 'inspiring awe'. And awe means anything from a kind of fear to something like wonder. It is often an over-used word and so becomes meaningless. But the word 'wonder' is one that helps me here. It's like those moments when you look at something and it takes your breath away, leaves you speechless (yes, even if you're a woman!) and lifts your heart and soul.

A brand new baby does it for me, and I've seen a few of those recently - it's the tiny little toes or teeny weeny fingernails. It can be particularly spectacular scenery or even something scary like the storms we've been having lately - after all, scary is part of awe.

Maybe I'll be sorry I didn't keep 'wonder' for 'W' but awe and wonder somehow go together for me. I have a little Willow Tree 'Angel of Wonder' which someone gave me following my mum's death. It is a reminder for me of my mum, and especially the last things she was able to say to me. As I sat with her the day before she died she seemed far away but at peace, and kept repeating the words 'wonderful, wonderful'. My mum was ready and wanted to go 'home' and I believe in those moments had a glimpse of Heaven.

Now that is awesome for me. Those moments I'll treasure forever, and forever be thankful to my awesome God.