Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 271: SONDER…a new to me word
I’m a big fan of letters and an even bigger fan of stringing letters together for the beauty of creating words. And when these words simply fall into place to effectively and creatively and intentionally communicate something...well, it’s pure magic and it makes me deliriously stupidly strangely happy. If you know me at all...you know I am rarely, if never, out of words and forever in need of an editor. I normally don’t just have one or two things to say about any given topic but about a trillion things I want to communicate or discuss or unpack or question or learn about. Can hardly sign my name without writing a full paragraph full of unnecessary flowery extra beautiful words. This part of me is both a blessing and a curse….but mostly a blessing.
Recently, I stumbled upon a new to me word that has kept me thinking and thinking and thinking more. AND if discovering a new word is not enough...its part of a collection of words that just seem to fit and explain so much of the unexplainable. “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrow is a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a whole in the language-to give a name to emotions we might all experience but don’t yet have a word for. This project...these words...the video noted below...narrated, written, directed and coined by John Koeing.” See link below to learn more.
My new favorite word is...SONDER.
Grateful to now have this word. Grateful to share this word. Grateful to apply this word and concept to all of the big juicy ideas, thoughts, feelings, perspectives, experiences zipping through our country right now. Just so much sonder-ing happening in every city, town, community, office, house and classroom. So much to consider. So much to examine. So much to respect, revolt and reverence. Grateful to now be able to describe the related connectedness and the fierce independence we all crave. Grateful that now I’ve found a word that helps explain this tiny slice of the unexplainable human experience that just seems to keep taking the spotlight this year.
For those who like to read...here goes. For those who like to watch and or listen...see below. Either way, today I am grateful to now have this word in my personal lexicon of language.
“Sonder - noun. The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Sonder. You are the main character - the protagonist - the star at the center of your own unfolding story. Your’re surrounded by your supporting cast: friends and family hanging in your immediate orbit. Scattered a little further out, a network of acquaintances who drift in and out of contact over the years. But there in the background, faint and out of focus, are the extras. The random passersby. Each living a life as vivid and complex as your own. They carry on invisibly around you, bearing the accumulated weight of their own ambitions, friends, routines, mistakes, worries, triumphs and inherited craziness. When your life moves on to the next scene, theirs flickers in place, wrapped in a cloud of backstory and inside jokes and characters strung together with countless and other stories you’ll never be able to see. That you’ll never know exists. In which you might appear only once. As an extra sipping coffee in the background. As a blur of traffic passing on the highway. As a lighted window at dusk.”
