We use words to ask each other good questions.
We used little ones to learn how to read.
See Dick run. See Jane play. Run Spot run.
I read autobiographies and horse stories in third grade that opened up the world of reading.
And these days my Kindle is full of words. I read every day. I like great writers where I re-read some paragraphs five or six times.
We use words to resolve conflict.
To be fair, words are at the start of a conflict, but they’re also at the end.
I experienced word trauma doing sentence structure diagrams in school.
Dangling participles and prepositions phrases. And when to say whom.
Ouch. I just could not bring myself to care about such things…
And then there was trauma in writing class.
Writing was painful and I struggled mightily with it in high school.
In college the self-paced Freshman English course was magical. The curriculum was logical and, for the first time, writing made sense. It may have been written by a thinker, not a creative. One professor said that I, “Write like an engineer.” Cool! As long as I make A’s on my papers, I don’t care how you describe my style. I learned the thinking way to write in Freshman English. Not from the heart. But it worked well in college. I would eventually stumble upon the “from the heart” way to write much later in life.
Is the role of an English teacher to teach the students to love words?
Did someone try to teach me to love words?
Perhaps they tried, but it didn’t take.
I wish someone would have taught me to write from my heart. To wait until I had an idea that had a lot life before beginning to write.
I may have started writing sooner.
Sometimes I regret that I didn’t start writing until just a few years ago.
And, at the same time, it seems like I am right on time.
This is my time to put words to things that are meaningful to me.
Someone told me, “You feel deeply. Therefore you write deeply.”
I have been aware, for most of my life, that I experience more emotions and feel things that others may not. My dad used to say, “Mike is the sensitive one.”
I delight in using words to capture and tell the stories of life.
Here are some of my favorite words and phrases from my word collection:
FUN WORDS and phrases short version
◦ Disrumplement
◦ Wonderfully dangerous
◦ He was a kind, honest, clear-sighted person with integrity and good sense, which meant she could trust him completely. From the last letter of Rachel Ellsworth.
◦ The thought of getting to write about that idea was wildly satisfying
◦ The bookstore smelled of scholarship and possibility.
◦ The listening room resonated with past conversations and was filled with childlike anticipation of what the next one would be like.
◦ He had not found a shred of clarity – until now, in the earthtones of this girl‘s eyes, and in the endless universes behind them.
◦ Her mother was often plagued by a noisy congregation of regret.
◦ Both of them could be propelled by the winds of life, but could also be swept up like debris in a tornado by them.
◦ Sounds to me like you are as lost as I am. Maybe we can be lost together.
◦ The listening cafe. When I cook for friends and we talk in the listening room.
◦ His friends called him Slow Leak. Michael Zaiontz
◦ Muse. A muse isn’t always a person—it can be a place, a feeling, a ritual, a question, or even a tension in your life that keeps pulling your creativity. My friend Ramon says that smoke is my muse.
◦ For recreational use only
◦ Gentle knowing
◦ She’s hard, she’s cold, and she’s mean. Song Hurricane
◦ Glory patties. Tony Calabrese describing my smoked sausage
◦ Lightning is loud but brief. I’d rather be the slow rain that soaks the soil.
◦ Hold that thought and let it warm you for a while like a cup of coffee
◦ It smells like rain and stories.
◦ She was wearing a flowing colorful flower printed skirt and she smelled like patchouli and sunshine.
◦ I see someone whose silence is full of music. Someone who listens so deeply that others forget the world is noisy.
◦ Wildflowers in the wind
◦ Love blooms softly, like starlight, brushing on the edge of a dream.
◦ The ache of something that’s just out of reach
◦ Pulled by something ancient and tender
◦ The poetry of silence
◦ Barefoot
◦ Caress
◦ Linguistic somersaults
◦ Wondrous
◦ Exuberant
◦ “He looks like a con man that swindles wayward, weak willed women.” Phyllis and Mike’s comments at the Country View Amish market
◦ Dancing on the edge of chaos and order
◦ The aesthetics, the romance, the craft. What Aaron Franklin likes about BBQ
◦ Captivated
◦ Crappy diem: When you seize the wrong day.
◦ Sangria
◦ Elegant solution; a beautifully ingenuous simple solution
◦ This is my opening farewell.
◦ “A profound question to humanity with existential significance is how do you make a great hamburger.” Tony Wakefield 10-4-2022
◦ Live great big.
◦ Jazz Bakery: There is a jazz venue called Jazz Bakery.
◦ Love bakery
◦ Marriage Bakery.
◦ Listening Bakery.
◦ Conversation Bakery.
◦ Connection bakery
◦ holy grounds (Tony Calabrese) what he calls coffee
◦ A profound invitation.
◦ The place between wonder and mystery.
◦ Prayer. It is either ludicrous or it is breathtaking.
◦ Unsuspecting ordinary people.
◦ Indulge.
◦ Mike & Phyllis’ role: “Coffee and pondering.”
◦ The beautiful fundamentals
◦ some profound nonsense
◦ make your burger sing
◦ based on my crazy stories and wild exaggerations
◦ We are going to do some exploits together. Our marriage life group.
◦ nurture, nurturing
◦ providence: How God orchestrates things to show his glory in our lives. The opposite is coincidence and luck.
◦ Ease: something about her gave me ease
◦ escapades
◦ exploits and escapades; that goes well
◦ “Over-saved.” From the comedian, Michael Junior. Some people are over saved.
◦ Talkaholic: A person that compulsively talks too much.
◦ Eat bread with gusto. Drink wine with a robust heart. Relish life with the spouse you love each and every day! Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 The Message
◦ Conversational sensitivity: People that have a command of conversations are said to have conversational sensitivity. Conversational sensitivity requires cognitive complexity.
◦ Collude: Phyllis 5:30 a.m.: Would you like to write before we collude? ME: Yes! That sounds like we are doing something nefarious!
◦ Agency: I have agency because I feel like I have the power to make the decisions that affect my outcome.
◦ The Gathering feels like a meaningful and important once in a lifetime experience. To me it has a sobering heaviness like we need to steward this with great intentionality. It feels like an important piece of what God is doing in this generation. We are on the leading edge of something significant. This is not church as usual. I think we will look back on this from heaven and see that, in some important ways, we were making history. This is an epic God adventure that has a weightiness coupled with an ease and beauty because of His goodness. Mike Best FEB 26, 2025
◦ TEX-MEX BBQ TACO BAR
◦ Tex-Mex BBQ Taco Bar: This would include either smoked brisket or smoked chuck roast and chicken verde fajitas. The magic is in the fusion of Mexican flavors, tortillas, and side dishes, with Texas-style smoked BBQ. Did this with The Gathering
◦ “An unusually tall pour.”It was a learning process last night to get him settled but he made it. We just got him a little spit bath and washed his hair so he feels human again. I must admit I had an “unusually tall pour” of red wine after I got him settled! Paula after Michael’s hip surgery.
◦ He somehow coupled enormous intensity with warmth and kindness, and there was a vague sense of tragedy about him.
◦ “F*$K around and find out.”
◦ “Coffee with training wheels.” When you add two creams and two sugars to your coffee. Marilyn Halas
◦ Flabbergasted. We are thinking about adding this word to the Core motion wheel.
◦ JUNK YARD I thought she said, “He is a junk yard.” I misunderstood. She actually said that he was a “drunkard.” But I think “junk yard” is a colorful description of a person. That needs to be in a story. I will use that.
◦ It’s like discovering an even more beautiful shade of my favorite color.
◦ deliciously visceral
◦ Painfully erotic with a sense of humor
◦ Fresh hope
◦ epiphany
◦ hyperbolic dichotomy
◦ zippity doo dah
◦ A combination of joy, passion, and sorrow with a mix of lost and beautiful and a heart of music and flowers.
◦ Compelling gaze: His gaze was somehow compelling. He looked at her with what felt like genuine interest.
◦ What if?
◦ Autumn
◦ Brunch
◦ Half-ass “Dont half-ass it” If you consistently half ass it, is it still half-assed?”
◦ Swagger
◦ Yummy sparkly utopia futility Bridgett Blood NOV 2024 our house
◦ In the mingled emotions, there was a strange poignancy.
◦ People with easy laughter and soft edges
◦ Triumph
◦ Splurge.
◦ Snicker: try to snicker intentionally with friends. Chris Gygi was hilarious
◦ It felt like the freedom, beauty, and anticipation on the first run up the ski lift on the first day of ski season.
◦ Alabama gas station BBQ
◦ Fellow travelers.
◦ Snackage
◦ Couch church; when you decide to stream church from home.
◦ “Black butterflies swirling in my mind.” That is a French idiom for having the blues. From Jim Harrison’s memoirs.
◦ Conundrum
◦ Nitwit
◦ The coast of Spain
◦ Corroborate. Mike and Phyllis corroborated their stories that they were going to share with their doctor about how much coffee they drink every day.
◦ “I entered a story that I was not writing.”
◦ “The shrewd cutting kind of nonsense” Chris Palombo
◦ “The staggering tale of one man’s relentless pursuit of imperfection.”
◦ passion begat brilliance
◦ Exploits
◦ encore
◦ mama tried
◦ conversational canvas Tim Sassen. “Come let’s set out a conversational canvas in the listening room.”
◦
◦ cryptic
◦ Visceral
◦ Come in. Sit with me. Jesus
◦ Lets linger for a bit
◦ burger circus. Six-year-old Grant loved this and did a $100 giggle
◦ a whole load of nonsense
◦ Noble. There is nobility in serving others.
◦ Captivate.
◦ Satisfied. “You seem satisfied.” Sue Mead May 2024 RTF campout
◦ Carnival. Life with me is a constant carnival!
◦ The importance of intentional communication and the simplicity of pure love. Marriage prophesy from Michelle 2024 03 14
◦ Bourbon words: a lingering buttery mouth feel all throughout with slight hints of caramel, layered with notes of nuts, and slight hints of brown spices with a lengthy finish.
◦ Burger words:
◦ Blue cheese pub burger: A lingering beef fat mouth feel all throughout with slight hints of smoky black pepper, layered with notes of bleu cheese and subtle hints of garlic with a comforting finish.
◦ Somewhat retired
◦ bonafide. A bonafide miracle
◦ mingle: two different or similar feelings can mingle…
◦ a slow and luscious smile
◦ a secret smile that I know she will like
◦ full of love and agony
◦ She smells like patchouli and dreams
◦ Poetic.
◦ flabbergasted
◦ shenanigans
◦ Gravy: It’s a gravy morning
◦ lollygag
◦ Linger: Let us linger for a moment.
◦ Every time someone uses the word Power Point, a little part of me dies…
◦ Cherish. John Reed shared that he cherishes our friendship.
◦ A troubadour acting on his heart.
◦ Gathered in His spirit
◦ a warm, intense, and curious gentleman
◦ The Sunrise Sunset Café
◦ Dinner club
◦ Undone
◦ Nuance
◦ Whimper
◦ Third options. What is the third option?
◦ Love option. What is the love option? Break the chain of evil. With kindness.
◦ provocative. A provocative book title.
◦ When a person “loses their shadow,” they have lost a part of themselves and have to search to get it back.
◦ I lost my shadow for a while… (I lost most of myself for a long while… More than just my shadow.)
◦ You are in the middle of your stories. You can trust me.
◦ Half-truths and hyperbole.
◦ The Highwomen jokingly refer to their collaboration as a “pirate ship experience.”
◦ Please, for the sake of all that is holy…
◦ Daydreamer
◦ astounding
◦ Wonder
◦ A singular individual (better to say than “there is nobody like him”.).
◦ A genuine contemporary experience.
◦ Build more Infrastructures of kindness
◦ Evil genius
◦ Expeditiously
◦ Nefarious intent
◦ incendiary rhetoric
◦ contentious woman
◦ Painfully awkward
◦ Mischievous smirk
◦ mesmerizing curiosity
◦ Effortlessly remarkable. She was….
◦ “Cracker Jack Prize” A race horse name in the book The Echo of Old Books My thoughts: How did you all meet? I was a Cracker Jack Prize
◦ The Pickled hedgehog, the name of the Irish pub restaurant in the book Woman of God
◦ Anthony Bourdain The Nasty Bits:
◦ A talented cook with a criminal mind
◦ Life is a rush of fragments, all jostling for attention
◦ An element of desperation and resignation
◦ Frustrating and addicting
◦ Big and mysterious world
◦ dysfunctional but wondrous life
◦ ===========================
◦ Flavor profile. Our family has the green chili flavor profile. Cathy
◦ tranquility
◦ wreckless love
◦ compelling
◦ esoteric
◦ oddly profound
◦ elegant simplicity of food
◦ hospitality and generosity
◦ crazy beautiful
◦ Wonder
◦ Persuasive
◦ Delight
◦ deep dive into my soul
◦ Happy accident
◦ Whacked-out
◦ Irreverent coon dog
◦ Awaken
◦ swell
◦ dichotomy
◦ orchestrate
◦ tapestry
◦ conundrum
◦ privileges
◦ mystery
◦ playful
◦ grilling laboratory
◦ wanker
◦ elaborate
◦ elegant
◦ elegant solution
◦ lush
◦ stellar
◦ visceral
◦ scent
◦ informs (My faith informs my writing.) I feel deeply. Therefore I write deeply. My feelings about life inform and color my writing.
◦ Awaken my heart with wonder.
◦ He’s a whacked-out irreverent coon-dog.
◦ The wonder of a child. Everything’s new and exciting. Stay curious.