Hello and Happy May! It just amazes me that we are already 18 weeks into the year.

Our word for this week is Grace.

According to Lexico, which is powered by Oxford (dictionary), the word Grace is defined as:

• 1 Smoothness and elegance of movement.
• 2 Courteous good will.
• 2.1 An attractively polite manner of behaving.
• 3 (in Christian belief) the free and unmerited favour of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.
• 3.1 A divinely given talent or blessing.
• 4 A period officially allowed for payment of a sum due or for compliance with a law or condition, especially an extended period granted as a special favour.
• 5 A short prayer of thanks said before or after a meal.
• 6 His, Her, or Your Grace Used as forms of description or address for a duke, duchess, or archbishop.
• 7 the Graces or the Three Graces(in Greek mythology) three beautiful goddesses (Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne) believed to personify and bestow charm, grace, and beauty.

I am reading this book called A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers. As I thought of the word Grace I realized that while I had an understanding of the definition(s) of Grace I couldn’t really put it into words.

After reading the above definitions I noticed the difference between the second and third definitions and wondered – what if we (humans) gave grace like God does? His grace is free and unmerited? I understand that we are all flawed in our human form. We are not God, but what difference would it make in the world if we responded with “courteous goodwill or grace” even when is not deserved. I am reminded of this quote “People need loving the most when they deserve it the least”.

I must make an effort to do better.

Hello and welcome.

Our word of the week is Indecision.

Merriam Webster defines indecision as:

 a wavering between two or more possible courses of action : IRRESOLUTION

I have to admit that this “Word of the Week” series that I started writing in January 2021 has been more challenging than I expected. I find myself struggling each week to decide on a word. Throughout my life I have never had problems with indecision but in most, probably all, cases I have a much smaller selection. It is reported that there are over a million words in the English language and my challenge is to choose just 1 each week.

In an attempt to make things easier I have decided to narrow the scope of these posts. Going forward the words that I select must be uplifting – something to heighten the mood, make you feel good or make you smile. That is now my goal for Word of the Week. I hope you will stick with me and we will see how it goes. 🙂

How you ever struggled with indecision? Do you have a process for making decisions?

Hello and Welcome.

Our word for this week is decimate.

According to Merriam Wester the word decimate means:

1: to select by lot and kill every tenth man

2: to exact a tax of 10 percent

3a: to reduce drastically especially in number

b: to cause great destruction or harm to

Today as I was pondering the fate of our cherry crop after last nights freezing temperatures this word came to mind. Over the years I have repeatedly heard my husband talk of people misusing this word. He would explain that while others were using it to describe total destruction of something, it really only meant a reduction of 10% or one-tenth.

While looking at the Merriam Webster page (linked above) I noticed that my husband was not the only one who saw this word as being misused or perhaps abused. At the bottom of that web page there is a comments section where many people have voiced their disapproval of it being used as definitions 3a&b. There were so many comments in fact that Merriam Webster found it necessary to write a separate explanation or justification.

I do understand that word meanings, especially in the English language, evolve over time and quite honestly I sometimes find it frustrating. In the case of the word decimate the definitions cover such a broad range (10% to 100%) that I wonder if it is even worth using. There are many synonyms that could be used instead.

Our cherry tree, however, might be an exception. At this time I can safely say that the freezing temperatures will decimate our crop because I expect our loss will be somewhere between 10% and 100%. In other words we just don’t know.

How do you feel about word definitions changing?

Are there any specific word changes that have bothered you?