Category Archives: New Word

Music, New Word, Personal, Poetry And Prose, Writing

If Or Why (Original Songs)

01/29/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

I don’t expect people to take the time to listen or absorb the message. Whether other people think so or not, some of the lyrics are insightful. The female voice version seemed to have an unpleasant tone, even though it resonated with me, and I worked diligently until I achieved that sound.

I don’t create things with the exclusive motive of it being liked. If I had that fear, I would do what most people would and fail to summon magical words from the air.

I have three versions of this song.

Here are the lyrics:

the January sun shone on your hair
your shirt clung to you like a glove
I held my breath for a fleeting moment
as I watched you walk toward me

I knew your mind was elsewhere
I waited for our eyes to meet
A smile, a glance, flickering enthusiasm
The reciprocal charm of being waited for

I couldn’t do what came to mind
I couldn’t say the things in my heart
I swallowed down the hungry tingle
and instead urgently looked away

When you feel like you’ve been hungry
The difficulty lies in thinking straight
You don’t buy a house just for the kitchen
But try living there without one

The gradual wither of my affection
Leaves me a little shredded and uncertain
I can’t find the words to explain the color blue
When you don’t see the things that I see as true

Beauty truly lies in the eye of the beholder
its value diminishes when someone grows colder
Confidence and esteem have their place
Yet it’s a tango, a duet, and a mutual dance

One person’s truth is another’s lie
It’s easy to forget that it takes two
Both being nurtured, seen, and felt

One person’s truth is another’s lie
And I can’t find the words to tell you why
I crave a life filled with overflowing
Freely shared and effortlessly showing

Dancing alone just isn’t the same
It moves your feet yet traps the pain

if art is food for the soul
of what use are eyes if not to see
of what use are arms
if not to hold and behold

One person’s truth is another’s lie

No one should be left wondering if or why

….

The original version…

The second version, more of a rock feel…

An alternate rock version…

Love, X
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New Word, Nostalgia, Personal

Cold Wisdom

12/22/2024 X Teri Leave a comment

Since I went to sleep too early last night, I was up at 12:30. I took advantage to attempt to see the less spectacular Ursid meteor shower. The vantage point in the open parking lot about a half a mile away had too much radiant light interfering. It confuses me when I’m up at that hour because the bars and strip joints still thrive with people making dubious choices.

But back at the apartment, I used my Star Walk app to orient myself facing Ursa Minor. Normal people refer to it as the Little Dipper. Our current North Star, Polaris, is the end of the handle of the dipper. It could not have been more ideal due to the towering pine trees behind my apartment blocking the moonlight – and most of the city’s lights. The Ursid meteors are more sporadic. I always find myself half frozen with a crick in my neck from soft-focusing my eyes toward the sky.

Flight Delta DAL 2036 flying from Salt Lake to Fort Lauderdale flew over at 38,000 ft. It was pretty dazzling. 🙂

I accidentally learn something each time I take the time or make the time to watch the sky. It’s rare for me to watch the stars and not think of my grandpa pointing toward the constellations. He wasn’t well educated. But like most people of his generation, knowing things like that was second nature. Before good maps, GPS, and all the things we take for granted. I wonder what he would think or say if he were standing next to me at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, watching me hold one of the most advanced communication and information devices ever created.

The irony of me using such a device to watch and learn about remnants of our universe that are 4.5 billion years old isn’t lost on me.

One thing I do know. Grandpa would have laughed if I told him I was cold and it was about damn time for another cup of coffee. I got my jadeite green coffee cup off the shelf when I went inside. As I drank from it, I thought about the fifty years I’d enjoyed between now and the first time I learned the name of a constellation.

“Age does not bring wisdom. It brings experience that teaches you that everything passes whether you do anything about it or not.”

Behavior, New Word, Opinion, Personal, Psychology, Social Rules

True

09/07/2024 X Teri Leave a comment

That which lacks, preoccupies.

We tend to sacrifice the 80% to chase the 20% we lack.

Negative feelings suffocate positive ones.

Apathy is far more dangerous than hate.

Hunger and unsatisfied appetites of any kind yield undesirable behavior.

Loneliness drowns hope.

Powerlessness inevitably leads to hopelessness.

Not now is synonymous with never.

Procrastination is a loan against your future energy.

Postponement is denial and the arrogance of borrowing from an uncertain future.

Arguing politics with the uninformed is a folly of ego.

Attempting to be right is your zipper down in church.

Every substance you ‘need’ is not a friend; it’s a foe.

Certainty is the path to error and it makes us drowsy toward learning.

Intelligence is not what you know. It’s recognizing what you do not.

Humor and wit seldom dwell where unhappiness or anger reside.

Beauty is everywhere, regardless of circumstance. So, too, is despair.

This dance requires smiles in anguish and pain, even in love.

On a long enough timeline, entropy awaits you and every accomplishment you find pride in.

Anger reveals the content of thought quicker than explanation.

Truth cannot be explained to he who doesn’t want it.

No elegant word can penetrate the defense of blind certainty.

Gratitude is the missing spice from most people’s tables.

The best answer for anger is silence; fires do not burn without fuel.

Where grief abides, only presence matters.

All good things come to an end, yet our troubles only continue because we nourish them with attention and regret.

We double down on bad choices when surrender serves us.

Graves should be sermons to us; instead, we waste ourselves with distraction.

Let go of the handlebars.

Love, X

Behavior, New Word, Opinion, Personal, Psychology

fjrudje

08/06/2024 X Teri Leave a comment

Fjrudje

There are some intangible pleasures in life that go beyond explanation. For some, it’s watching their children become independent and creative people. Others sit by a campfire and watch the tendrils of smoke ascend to the night sky. A cup of pungent coffee, one that triggers the strength to help you avoid using a skillet on your coworkers.

Whatever your fjrudje might be, find a way to give it priority. Finite time and a limited reservoir of energy compel you to put in the time and effort for the things that matter to you. It’s hard enough living in a modern world and pushing away the distractions.

Fjrudje is a word I created, one based on an imaginary European language. It is supposed to be almost unpronounceable. Much like the alchemy and complexity of the feelings and thoughts you deal with during a normal day. I often refer to the lemon moments, the moments between the Kodak moments that most of us associate with a good life. 98% of your life fills the margins between the bookmarks that are worthy of qualifying as great memories.

Love, X

New Word, Opinion, Personal, Spanish

Dicho

08/01/2024 X Teri Leave a comment

“A smile is the language of the intelligent.”
(“La sunrisa es el idioma de los inteligentes.”)

“Kindness is the behavior of the wise.”
(“La bondad es el comportamiento de los sabios”.)

“Nothing surpasses the silence of presence. Except for maybe a hug.”
(“Nada supera el silencio de la presencia. Excepto tal vez un abrazo.”)

X
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Mental Health, New Word, Psychology

Truth

05/03/2024 X Teri Leave a comment

“Optimism whispers, but doubt shouts.”

Humor, New Word

Bissextile, Popcorn, and Mosquitoes

03/11/2024 X Teri Leave a comment

Bissextile, Popcorn, and Mosquitoes
(It’s not the latest Taylor Swift song.)

“Pergolas are the broken condom of curb appeal.” I heard that hilarious quote in a Lewis Black video last week. It’s infected my head with yet more riveting and true observations. I’d add my own: “Pergolas are the proof that form defeats function, much like McDonald’s eyebrows.”

The word “bissextile” is interesting. However, it does not hold much value for communication. It’s used mainly to denote the leap year—at least among people who love vocabulary. For everyone else, it’s another example of our language strangling us with complexity. I love observing people sneer at those who don’t follow the alleged rules of our language. Especially spelling. That’s orthography to the supercilious-minded folks among us. (I used supercilious jokingly; it’s how the upper crust looks at some of us when we walk by.)

Another totally unrelated thing is that so many people don’t know that the best way to store popped popcorn is in the icebox. I was going to type “fridge,” but that extra mysterious “d” in the abbreviation for “refrigerator” irritates me. That our language has so many wildly disparate and ridiculous spelling and pronunciation conundrums astounds me. “Icebox” is an anachronism but one that has served us well for decades. By the way, the consensus among many is that we added the “d” to “fridge” not because of unilateral usage but rather because Frigidaire Corporation made a buttload of fridges. It’s more complicated than that because we can’t have easy answers or explanations for anything.

Mosquitoes hone in on the carbon dioxide we breathe out. They also tend to go to certain colors. This is a very useful fact.

I was going to joke about the fact that only female mosquitoes bite, but I am scared of the cancel culture. I’m not quite recovered from the incident last year, in which I was banned from participating in yodeling contests because I paid a helper to intermittently hit me in the groin with a small hammer as I yodeled.