Escribir

A word. So simple. So complex. So neccesary.

I was helping my son with his homework tonight and I read the directions aloud to him.

“Write a sentence using the word TOP.”

“Mama, what’s a sentence?”

Wow.

I paused and stared at him. What’s a sentence? Uh… Uh…

“Sentences are made of words. We use words to describe how we feel,” I say slowly, looking him in his eyes. “Words tell what we think or just to tell what happened. When we put them together they form sentences. But we have to put them together in the right way. That’s what we call a language. Like, you know, we speak English and some of the people speak Spanish.”

“Yeah.” he said.

“Mmm, hmm. That’s why I love the fact that you like to read and write. You’re gonna learn a lot of words and then you can come up with ideas and you will be able to have people understand you.”

He just looked at me.

I speak to my sons like that all of the time. LOL! I know they are young but I don’t want to dumb down my vocabulary. If I use a power vocab word I will simply explain the word to them and we will come up with examples. Like one day my boys were in the bathtub and I told them that if they wet the floor they would have to go to bed with no TV time. Ofcourse they wet the floor anyway with their Spiderman and Spongebob toys.

As I dried them off with the towel I calmly told them that they had been disobedient (they know what that means) and that they would have to reap the repercussions. “What’s repercussions Mama?” my 5 year old asked.

“Repercussions is the same as consequences. The result of your actions. If you do this..then that will happen. And I told BOTH of you, if you wet the floor you get no TV time. You wet the floor, you get no TV time. Because you wet the floor, your repercussion is No TV. If you drop one of your video games in the bathtub what will happen?”

“It won’t work.”

“That is a repercussion. You get it?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Strengthening your vocabulary is one of the smartest things you can do. We use words to communicate who we are, what we care about and how we feel. Words give our heart’s desires a voice.

When you learn a new word you OWN the word. You can then use it how you see fit, to PRECISELY communicate what you are feeling. How many of us get tongue tied in frustration when we can’t figure out how to say what’s on our minds? Those of us with the gift of communication are so blessed. We instantly become the voice for those who don’t know how to speak.

The written word is so powerful that it can make or break a life. People believe the things they see in print. For some reason, if it’s bound and on sale at Books A Million, then it’s credible. If someone says something negative about you in print, it’s much more difficult to forget than if they screamed it at you.

I relish every moment that I get to read or write. Today I thoroughly enjoyed this month’s Essence magazine. My eyes inhaled every article, every advertisement, every quote. To read these words written by women who look like me and ABOUT women who look like me- gives me an energy boost.

“I can do that,” I say to myself. “I KNOW I can do that. I can be eloquent. I can paint a picture. I can tell a story.”

Skilled story tellers aren’t easy to find. The good ones tell the story so well that you forget you are reading. You feel as though you have become a fly on the wall. You feel like you’re listening in on a secret. THAT is damn good writing.

And though Essence has rejected my story ideas more times than I’d care to admit, I still believe that my name will grace those pages. And my ideas and values will be shared with the world.

Or maybe, just maybe I’ll have my own platform to share about healing, love, life, and the search for fulfillment.

You never know.