Words—Delightful, Expressive Words Ruth Smith Meyer

Words have always brought me pleasure. There isn’t much greater satisfaction than to closely look at an emotion or circumstances then choose a word with the ideal nuance or shade of meaning to perfectly portray the situation. Perhaps that is why, as a teenager, I read the entire dictionary. People have teased me about that and some have even scoffed at the idea of such boring reading. During that time, I decided to choose words that I could incorporate into my vocabulary. Each week, I would choose one and see how often I could use it in my normal every-day life.

Take for instance, my delight in words, described in my first sentence as pleasure. Without hunting in my Roget's or other sources, just using the Thesaurus that comes with my Microsoft Word, I can choose the nuance I like from enjoyment, happiness, delight, joy, bliss, contentment, satisfaction, gratification; amusement, recreation, fun, leisure, diversion; desire, preference, wish, liking, inclination, will. All of these are relatively common, but can enhance your conversation or writing.

On line, yourdictionary.com provides added synonyms: felicity, rapture, ease, comfort, gladness, delectation, relish, kicks

Further explanation follows: pleasure is the general term for an agreeable feeling of satisfaction, ranging from a quiet sense of gratification to a positive sense of happiness; delight implies a high degree of obvious pleasure, openly and enthusiastically expressed a child's delight with a new toy; joy describes a keenly felt, exuberant, often demonstrative happiness their joy at his safe return; enjoyment suggests a somewhat more quiet feeling of satisfaction with that which pleases our enjoyment of the recital

Of course, as a writer, there’s practical help in a variety of words. When we have need to repeat the same emotion or description several times in close proximity, choosing different words with like meaning can not only keep your writing fresh, but can add emphasis and depth to any scene or account.

Some people are especially adept at using the English language in refreshing ways. Poets are often among these, but some do so with prose. If you haven’t read Ann Voskamp’s best-selling book One Thousand Gifts or her blog Holy Experience, look for them. She is a master at phrases and descriptions that bring vivacious energy into the ordinary and routine. As an example here are a few quotes from one of Ann’s recent blogs.

“I bear the stretchmarks of my 2011.” (Doesn’t that describe a growing year?)

"There's only one address anyone lives at and it's always a duplex: joy and pain always co-habit every season of life. Accept them both and keep company with the joy while the pain does its necessary renovations." (What better advice, expressed in clear terms, could one want for the beginning of a ne year?)

I encourage you to do what I want to do this year--look at my ordinary, ever-day world and describe it in ways that will bring new meaning and understanding of the opportunities each moment presents.

Yeah for stretch-marks and renovations!