Sometimes I forget to pull off my Word-a-Day calendar pages as the days pass, & so I’m left with a stack of them when I finally catch up. I put them in my inbox and read through them at a later time; words I already know well & use regularly get thrown out, and ones I find interesting or useful and are less known to me I put back in the inbox so I can re-read them and re-read them until I use them in a sentence somewhere (usually only in my journal) and so learn to use a new word.
Writer’s habits 101.
But there was an odd little sequence when I pulled off a clump of pages recently.
On October 19th sansculotte showed up.
On October 18th, hirsute.
On the 17th, opusculum.
On the 16th, popinjay.
On the 15th, alterity.
To me it read like a Tarot reading. Had I asked the right questions as I pulled the pages off, of course.
What is my past?
The biggest hurdle of my past?
My probable reality?
My greatest fear of who I really am?
My truth?
I’m sure I could keep on doing this, since the 20th is mogul. (What is my most unrealistic wish?) I feel like I’ve invented a verbal I Ching.