keep your peepers open!

keep your peepers open!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

what's in some words

My years in graduate and undergraduate school were not filled with artistic study. Family persuasion not of the gentle kind nudged me away from interior design in undergrad, I self selected marketing in grad because it was the one major that made some iota of sense to me. I’m not sure if my MBA days boosted my love of snazzy phraseology. I do know that I became much more aware of stringing words together in catch phrases and taglines while sitting in advertising class. I love hip vernacular, try my best to keep up with the current lingo and know how to slice and dice what I need to say to fit it into a tweet. Funny, there are a bazillion words out there with many more being created everyday. So why are we trying to use less? Go figure.

Right now there is a commercial running for this week’s installment of some comedy. I have no intention of watching though I am curious to know if when she says, “shut the front door” it’s a cuter and more prime time acceptable replacement for “shut the F-word up.” I rather like the front door thing and regardless of what it means, plan to drop it into rotation as a substitute for my potty mouth stringalong that has just a few more expletives attached. Last week, discussions circling around Chris Rock’s movie Good Hair prompted a woman who dyes her hair to remark that “nobody’s carpet matches their drapes.” She was not referring to items in the home and just in case you can’t make the connection, she meant that female hair “down there” never matches the color of the hair on their head. Fabulous analogy, so worth repeating. However, I will drop the word nobody as I’m not so sure this is true for all women. I for one…well let’s move on shall we…

When I teach workshops, I encourage participants to rethink how they say things in order to reshape the way their lives are going or how they think of themselves. For so many, the tendency to state things in the positive does not come as naturally as phrasing them in the negative. We also rely on clichés to express our feelings instead of speaking from within during serious conversations. It’s just easier and more comfortable to fall back on the familiar rather than challenge the norm or dig for something heartfelt. While there are numerous examples running through my head, one that springs to mind is, “it’s their loss.” I’ve used it hoping to comfort someone; others have said it to console me. We utter this line in an effort to help a person see how wonderful they are after a break up or job loss. The last time it was said to me I “smoked it over” (my grandmother used to say this when she needed to think about something) and now want to submit the following to you for consideration. When there is a separation of any sort, it might just be for the best particularly if the relationship was not healthy. However when we love, really like, or care for someone and suddenly they are no longer part of our life, we too lose something very real and very tangible. It’s okay to grieve, still feel for them, remember and then we must move on carrying the best part of that person with us along with lessons learned. They came to us for a reason and we to them for a reason that only time will tell. Be grateful and as Miguel Ruiz suggests in one of the four agreements, don’t take it personal. And one more thing…you are fierce!

No matter how many or how few words you choose to use, take a moment to think about what you want to say, make it your own, make it meaningful, and in the words of Tim Gunn, MAKE IT WORK!

keep your peepers open! ®

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