February 3rd, 2017
Affirmation: I move forward without hesitation.
Word of the Day: imprecate (v):
____
Compliance
(In an ironic turn of events, I was going to write a post about Groundhog's Day today, but then I realized that Groundhog's day was yesterday... ha!)
I love words. An though I am no etymologist or linguistics scholar, I love to learn new words, tease words apart, contemplate their origins, and experience the delightful satisfaction of finding le mot juste for a given situation.
As a random example (for I have countless of these), take the word "courage." I love that it stems from the French coeur - or heart. It reminds me how having courage and metaphorically "having heart" are one in the same.
In any case, I wanted to write about the word compliance today. It popped into my head during my meditation this morning for no apparent reason.
I have a tenuous relationship with this word. I both despise its connotations and am also its slave in some sense (ironic that I am compliant to compliance...). Externally, I tend to be a rule follower, authority-fearer, maintain the status quo, don't rock the boat, conform or you'll be sorry kind of person. But the "real" me bristles at the idea of blind adherence, meek acquiescence, and docile deference. The true me spurns subjugation in favor of empowerment, embodiment, advocacy, and authenticity.
Thus my dilemma. How to reframe this word and my relationship and behavior towards it? The solution? My personal etymological exercise (since I have no idea from where the actual word came).
In looking at the word compliance, we have "com" and "pliance."
Com is a Latin prefix meaning "with," "together," or "in association."
Dictionary.com defines the pliant as "bending readily; flexible; supple; adaptable."
Thus, we have a word that means with flexibility or together with adaptability.
This I can get behind. When I think of my rigid rule-following, I think of a brittle, dry, and rigid tree in winter, susceptible to snap in the wind, to break with turbulence. I contrast this to a supple, flexible tree that allows itself to flow and bend and change course, moving with the wind rather than allowing the wind to break it.
I think that this is a perfect metaphor for the way different people can approach the storms of life - either facing them rigidly and inflexibly, bracing for the break, or flexibly, allowing change to take it's course and maintaining a sense of self while simultaneously allowing molding and transformation to happen.
Perhaps being compliant is simply part of my nature. And that, moving forward, is a nature of flexible, adaptable, and dynamic living.
Affirmation: I move forward without hesitation.
Word of the Day: imprecate (v):
1. to invoke evil
on: curse.
The Freshness
When it's cold and
raining,
you are more beautiful.
And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.
The inner secret, that which was never born,
you are the freshness, and I am with you now.
I can't explain the goings,
or the comings. You enter suddenly.
and I am nowhere again.
Inside the majesty.
you are more beautiful.
And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.
The inner secret, that which was never born,
you are the freshness, and I am with you now.
I can't explain the goings,
or the comings. You enter suddenly.
and I am nowhere again.
Inside the majesty.
____
Compliance
(In an ironic turn of events, I was going to write a post about Groundhog's Day today, but then I realized that Groundhog's day was yesterday... ha!)
I love words. An though I am no etymologist or linguistics scholar, I love to learn new words, tease words apart, contemplate their origins, and experience the delightful satisfaction of finding le mot juste for a given situation.
As a random example (for I have countless of these), take the word "courage." I love that it stems from the French coeur - or heart. It reminds me how having courage and metaphorically "having heart" are one in the same.
In any case, I wanted to write about the word compliance today. It popped into my head during my meditation this morning for no apparent reason.
I have a tenuous relationship with this word. I both despise its connotations and am also its slave in some sense (ironic that I am compliant to compliance...). Externally, I tend to be a rule follower, authority-fearer, maintain the status quo, don't rock the boat, conform or you'll be sorry kind of person. But the "real" me bristles at the idea of blind adherence, meek acquiescence, and docile deference. The true me spurns subjugation in favor of empowerment, embodiment, advocacy, and authenticity.
Thus my dilemma. How to reframe this word and my relationship and behavior towards it? The solution? My personal etymological exercise (since I have no idea from where the actual word came).
In looking at the word compliance, we have "com" and "pliance."
Com is a Latin prefix meaning "with," "together," or "in association."
Dictionary.com defines the pliant as "bending readily; flexible; supple; adaptable."
Thus, we have a word that means with flexibility or together with adaptability.
This I can get behind. When I think of my rigid rule-following, I think of a brittle, dry, and rigid tree in winter, susceptible to snap in the wind, to break with turbulence. I contrast this to a supple, flexible tree that allows itself to flow and bend and change course, moving with the wind rather than allowing the wind to break it.
I think that this is a perfect metaphor for the way different people can approach the storms of life - either facing them rigidly and inflexibly, bracing for the break, or flexibly, allowing change to take it's course and maintaining a sense of self while simultaneously allowing molding and transformation to happen.
Perhaps being compliant is simply part of my nature. And that, moving forward, is a nature of flexible, adaptable, and dynamic living.
Key words in one of your sentences - 'maintaining a sense of self'. According to me that can happen only if you are self-aware to start with. 'Com' 'pliance' could otherwise cause you to lose your sense of self and turn into chronic subservience and worse. xoxo. m
ReplyDeleteAgreed - I think that is why slowing down and really connecting with our core on a regular basis is so important.
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