Words have always fascinated me! My work with words, as you might know, started when I was very young. When I was a kid, I actually read the dictionary for enjoyment. (I know, a true word geek!)
Tarcher/Putnam published God's Dictionary: Divine Definitions for Everyday Enlightenment in 2002. You can listen to the public radio program To the Best of Our Knowledge where I talk with Jim Fleming about the book, about spiritual etymology and how an exploration of the root meanings of words leads me to spiritual definitions.
Excerpts from God's Dictionary |
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Reviews and Articles
By all means, get a copy of God’s Dictionary. It’s out of print so try Amazon or AbeBooks, but more importantly, listen to yourself! Listen for words or phrases you repeat. If you can catch what you’re saying about yourself and your world, it can help you to change it. |
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Once I’d been counseling people spiritually for a while, it became clear that certain individuals used the same words over and over again—mostly to describe themselves.
One day, a woman said repeatedly that all she wanted was “self-confidence.” I waltzed to the Webster’s and, lo and behold, a world of solutions opened to me when I saw the etymology of the word confidence. Con- means with; -fidence comes from roots that mean fidelity or loyalty. All at once I knew how to assist my client!
If confidence means with loyalty, then self-confidence means with loyalty to the self. I saw the understanding dawn in her eyes as she whispered, “I’m not being loyal to myself.” That was the key for her.
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