I love words. Perhaps you’ve noticed! Sometimes I think about the richness of the English language and it tickles me.
For instance, who wants to be down? We don’t like it when things “get us down,” or when we’re “feeling down” or we’re “down in the dumps.”
Yet so often, my experience has been that it’s the down times that have taught me the most or moved me the most. Being down is painful, and pain motivates us like nothing else. We change.
So I was thinking: strange that a word like “down” should be so … well … down. Unless of course, we’re talking about feather down.
Mmmmmm … warm, enveloping, feather down quilts. Cosy nights, safe in bed … that’s the kind of down I like.
Or how about a walk on the downs? Wild, open space. Nature in the raw, feeling at one with nature, lungs filled with clean, crisp air. Body full of vigour.
When you think of being down, think of warmth, comfort and safety. Think of life-giving mother nature.
All downs I can think of have this in common: they move you. From movement comes growth. From growth comes change. And without change we would stagnate and die.
Don’t you just love your downs?
