Finding the Right Fit

I love words. In my favorite class of all time, Sylistics, we had to make a list of our top 100 favorite words. It was a few years back, but I can still remember some of them: giggle, defenestrate, hope, frolic, fuck, silly, vomit,  grin, illuminate, kismet, fear, luminous...

I learned that I have an affinity for two kinds of words.

1. words that sound like what they mean

2. words that are amazingly specific in their meaning

Learning sanskrit has altered the landscape in my mind. Strange plants, some beautiful, others simply functional have nestled in among the daisies--the best are a combination (form and function). Many of the words are simply shorthand for ideas I've had for a long time that took a lot more words to articulate in English.

It is a truly amazing thing to discover words that fit your beliefs. 

"To be of use." That's how I've articulated my goal in life for years. In the best, truest, most positive and productive way--to be of use (I stole the phrase from Homer Wells in John Irving's "The Cider House Rules"). And now I find that there is a (sanskrit) word for that: dharma. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is the Dharma of the warrior (Arjuna) to fight. For many of us, dharma is not so clear. 

What are we meant to do? How do we fit in and find a way to feel fulfilled?

I have a trick that I use to keep me awake (as opposed to asleep/dialing it in)--or as my friend Andrea put it to me many years ago: you have your kite with your key and it needs to be out there in the storm--and it is. But you are sitting on the couch, warm and safe and dry. The kite is out the window. Get up, go outside, and get wet. However you want to put it--to test that you are engaged, alive, present, awake (not on the couch)--think about this:

What would you do if you won the lottery? More money than you could spend in a lifetime. After you bought houses for your family and friends (is that just me?) and went on a trip with everyone you wanted with you to celebrate (tropical if you're me). Eventually you'd have to settle down and do something with the rest of your life.  How would you fill your days? 

I'd write and teach writing and yoga.

What would you do? I hope you're doing it. If not, what are you waiting for?