Choose Your Words Wisely

I have found myself growing more and more careful and aware of the words I choose as I have gotten older (and perhaps wiser) and I developed my writing practice. I love words, their richness, the sensations they evoke, the memories that rise to the surface from the sound of a random word.

This was brought home to me within my PhD writing recently.

I have been pondering names of things and their appropriateness after a comment by one of my PhD supervisors – he asked about the word ‘stories’ and how it evoked something ‘made up’, as opposed to something truthful that moves us towards equitable and shared trust and understanding. He was right, it did not feel like the right word.

I’m currently playing around with the phrase ‘knowledge tapestries’, how these are woven together (community) with different threads (people and information) to create something beautiful (useful, impactful, helpful). It may last through my PhD, it may continue beyond my PhD – but as things evolve so they must change. And this phrase is not written in stone, yet.

Many years ago I coined a phrased which I have tried to live by ever since, “words can be doves or bullets, choose wisely”, not only so you do not hurt or harm, but also to be more precise in your expression.