The word February comes from the Latin word februa, meaning to cleanse. Around this time of the year, ancient Romans had a month-long festival of atonement and sacrifice, named Februalia, which they dedicated to Februus, a god associated with death and purification.
Today I need to revisit what I wrote on May 30, 2018:
May 30, 2018
"It’s depressing to think about all this. I need to remember that I’m only responsible for my own actions, not other people’s. Instead of feeling angry for the things they do and the ugly consequences of their actions, I can be grateful I’m more careful than that. I can be grateful that I get to observe people from all walks of life, feel the effects of their actions on others, decide which qualities I like and which I want to avoid, and choose who I want to be."
Afarin Rava, Reflections: A Journey of Transformation
"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."
Margaret Mead
I don't know how other writers supply themselves with inspiration, but here are some of the steps I take:
- go for a walk
- visit my favorite blogs
- read a few pages of a book
- watch a show or a movie
and if all of these fail,
- meditate
(find that stubborn thought that doesn't want to go away when I'm trying to clear my mind, and jot it down... then map it and see what other words are associated with the key word or central thought...)
A friend who just finished reading Reflections asked me, "Why Arkansas?"
Well...
When I realized relocating inside California was out of the question because of the unaffordable listings, I started searching for something out of state. I chose realtor dot com and adjusted my filters to the maximum amount I could afford for any single residence with a minimum of one bathroom. I looked all over the place starting with surrounding states and gradually moved farther.
I spent every nonworking hour of February 2018 looking at little red dots on the map and reading property information. First, I found a place in Indiana, but I would need to wait weeks until the inspector could go there because the roads were covered with ice. I decided to move on and keep looking... I found a place in Missouri, contacted the agent, paid someone to inspect the place, and was told I would have to spend several thousand dollars on it before I could move in. That wouldn't work with my budget. February ended and eventually I found another place in Kentucky but encountered a similar problem. Finally, I found this newly-listed tiny cabin in Arkansas and immediately decided I wanted it because:
- the listing said it was built in 2017, so I knew time hadn't caused any damage...yet
- the pictures depicted a clean cabin in the middle of the woods with a lake in the background
- I found it on the first day of spring, or Nowruz, and took that as a sign...
So now you know why Arkansas... despite all its insects, spiders, and snakes.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
George R.R. Martin
It's Sunday...
The word for this day of the week, Sunday, comes from the Middle English (a form of the English language that was spoken from 1066 until the late 15th century) word sunnenday, which comes from the Old English (or Anglo-Saxon, the earliest recorded form of the English language) word sunnandæg. The English derivations come from the Latin diēs sōlis, literally “sun’s day.”
The Babylonians were the ones who started the seven-day week; they brought it to the Latin-speaking Romans, who named each day after a god. Germanic and Nordic people did the same, but with their own corresponding gods: Tiw, Woden, Thor, Frig, and Saturn, ...
In Germanic pre-Christian religions, the sun was represented by Sol, a woman who rode a chariot carrying the sun across the sky.
With Christianity, Latin-derived Romance languages changed “sun’s day” to “lord’s day” (domingo in Spanish, domenica in Italian, and dimanche in French); the word remained “Sun’s day” in the languages that would eventually become modern English.
Here's an idiom with Sunday:
a month of Sundays
What does it mean?
It means an indeterminately great length of time.
Do you know any other idioms with Sunday or its equivalent in another language and culture?
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
George Bernard Shaw
When I read a book, I find many terms I'm not familiar with, mostly technical terms. If I'm reading a book for pleasure and decide that knowing the definition of a certain unfamiliar word is not necessary, I may not look it up, unless it's repeated several times, in which case I get curious.
However, if I'm reading to edit someone's work, I look up every word I don't know, even those I've encountered before but don't have enough knowledge about their use. Since I mostly edit nonfiction books, most of my vocabulary-related discoveries are either technical or regional. Editing books gives me the opportunity to learn many technical terms that are used in various fields as well as regional words and expressions that reflect a culture and a way of life.
I've always enjoyed reading. I used to spend a lot of time reading in the first two decades of my life. Then responsibilities didn't allow me the time to read for pleasure anymore, and most of my reading happened in the form of proofreading and eventually editing manuscripts for authors, reading textbooks for school, or reading my students' writings and commenting on them. The only reading I did for a while came in the form of listening to audiobooks during my daily commute.
Since I moved to the woods nearly five years ago, I've found time to read for pleasure again, but recently, that too has become a challenge because my work is mainly editing, and my eyes get tired, so I take my time with books and don't read more than a few pages a night.
In reading fiction, I've found that my pace often matches that of the story I'm reading. I've also discovered that I finish some nonfiction books much faster than I do fiction. With some nonfiction books, such as essays or memoirs, though, I like to reflect on every sentence, and sometimes even every word.
Recently, I saw a funny post by zahir_0092 on Instagram that said:
If two vegans are arguing, is it still considered beef?
This was followed by 2xV = a picture of a piece of beef with a fork and a knife.
I got curious about the origin of having a beef with someone, so I asked Google and here's what I got:
"Londoners used to cry “hot beef!” (rhymes with: “stop thief!”) to raise the alarm in a touch-and-go situation. “Beef” came to be equated with “to shout”, and it evolved from there to represent what we know it as in its modern form."
https://au.teysgroup.com/food-info/having-beef/
I learned a new word today through Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day.
It's actually made of two words:
Ignis Fatuus
"An ignis fatuus is a light that sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground and is often attributable to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter. The term can also refer to a deceptive goal or hope."
“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
Paul J. Meyer
Shervin Hajipour's song, #Baraye (baraye means for, the preposition) released in September 2022, became the anthem for the #WomanLifeFreedom revolution in Iran, which started on September 16, 2022, after the death of Jina Amini, a.k.a. Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died while in the custody of the immoral group of armed forces who called themselves the "morality police," just another section of the #IRGCterrorists. Mahsa Amini was not the first woman who went into a coma in their custody and never woke up, nor the last one, sadly, but her murder triggered the protests that never died and became this revolution in progress.
Shervin made this song out of Iranian people's tweets reflecting their reasons for the uprising. Days after his song came out, Shervin got arrested by the Islamic Republic regime, and although he has been released on bail, he is under watch.
Shervin is not the only singer arrested for his art. Three rappers, #ToomajSalehi, #SamanYasin, and #BehradAliKonari, are currently being tortured in prison for their songs. Their lives are in danger. There's a #FreeToomaj campaign going on right now as today is Toomaj's 100th day under torture in solitary confinement.
Last night, "Baraye" (meaning for, as in for the sake of) won the Best Song for Social Change Award at the #Grammys2023, presented by none other than the First Lady herself.
Shervin's two-word tweet "we won" says it all: his happiness for winning, his lack of freedom, his hope for finishing what we started, and his sense of solidarity.
Here's a link to his song:
http://youtu.be/LY_U5QfeQQc
Also, here's a link I found interesting, mostly because it has to do with the linguistic aspect of the song:
https://www.languageonthemove.com/baraye-preposition-of-the-year/
Finally, here's a link to a post from my other blog, where I write as Gratitude Girl:
https://gratigi.blogspot.com/2022/12/shervin-hajipour.html
Phil... Prediction... Punxsutawney... Pennsylvania...
After being snowed in for days, losing power for 27 hours, and not being able to drive on the icy roads in the last few days, my heart is with Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and my mind is focused on positive thoughts only: visualizing Phil seeing no shadows whatsoever and predicting that spring will be here as soon as possible.
It's Groundhog Day!!!
Those whose first language doesn't categorize nouns as feminine or masculine might find learning languages that do somewhat challenging. For example, an American learning French might not appreciate the le or la (meaning the in English) or the un or une (meaning a or an in English) in front of a noun.
Thankfully, there is some logic to it; for instance, fille, meaning girl, is feminine, and garçon, meaning boy, is masculine. There are also some rules that help distinguish the gender of some nouns; for instance, nouns ending in tion, like nation, are generally feminine (la nation) and nouns ending in age, like message are generally masculine (le message). However, for the most part, the learner must simply learn the gender of each noun with the noun itself.
It's easier than one may think, though, and gender can be learned with practice. Speaking or writing la table (the table) and le sucre (the sugar) a few times is enough to remember each of these nouns' gender. The nouns that start with a vowel might need more attention, though, because in French the article for nouns that start with a vowel is l', instead of le or la, so practicing these nouns in speaking or writing with l' doesn't guarantee learning their articles. These nouns require a specific kind of practice: using the nouns with un or une, instead of l'. For instance, instead of practicing l'oasis, which won't do you much good in terms of learning its gender, practice saying une oasis.
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