This has been a crazy-busy week, so I’m doing a bit of multitasking in this post. What follows is my newest chapter in The Great Book of Lists. Thank you to La duchesse d’Erat for this excellent challenge. Here are the instructions for anyone interested:
- Every Monday, I will propose a theme and you will have until Sunday night to publish your ticket, including the hashtag #TGBOL and a ping back (link) to the post announcing the topic which you are participating.
- I will publish a summary of holdings with a new theme on Monday.
- The comments section will allow you to say on what topics you want to write or to do lists.
- Do not forget to subscribe to the blog so as not to miss the ads Monday.
In addition, this list is also in response to the Three Quotation Challenge. Thanks Jade M. Wong for including me. (Please forgive me for combining my three quotes in one day and skipping the tagging people part. The way this week has gone, I’m just glad to get to participate at all).
Okay, so here’s this week’s prompt and my response:
The Great Book of Lists 2.2: Words That Matter
Words, as simple as they may seem, possess power. Once spoken, you cannot take them back. Once said, it’ll be either white or black.
So today, let’s make a list of those words that has pushed you forward, to do good, to be glad. Words that kept you standing. Words that encouraged you to keep moving. Words that picked you up. Words that lit you up. Words that introduced you to an unknown world. Words that explained you the meaning of life, even beyond earth.
Those words deserve to be shared, so let’s share them today.
1. If you’ve read my “What I’m About” page or taken a look around my site, you’ll see I’m a big fan of where I live. I’ve moved around the country and traveled the world, and there’s really no place like home.
2. One of the most famous shipwrecks in the Great Lakes was memorialized in the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot. I’ve grown up singing that song, and I can’t help but think of these lines whenever I stand on the shore of Lake Superior.
3. I’ve always loved the Robert Hayden poem “Those Winter Sundays” because it reminds me of my dad and because of the simple yet evocative descriptions of cold mornings. I’ve included just the first stanza here.
4. This is my favorite love poem. I’m not particularly mushy, but something about Brook’s lines “His hand to take your hand is overmuch” and “…you are free with a ghastly freedom” have resonated with me from the first time I read this piece.
5. This is kind of a sad poem, emphasizing the idea that our pain is our own and that life goes on even when we are in the midst of tragedy, but I love the way Auden uses Brueghel paintings–especially Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, which hangs in my office–to remind us that life isn’t all about us.
6. Although all of these words above have mattered to me at some point in my life, the words that matter most are the ones below, written by my son:
Okay, your turn! What words have mattered to you in a significant way?
Amy Morris-Jones 