Five Words

I was given five words to jump start a post from Wendy at All in a Day's Thought. She got five from Kristen Torres-Toro, who got five from JungleMom...but I have no idea where it started before that because I lost the trail.

The gist is that I'm to build a great post around these five words. Being a therapist, my twist might be slightly different. I'm going to free associate (write down the first several words that come to mind when I think of these following words below) and then expound on one or two. So here goes:

Innovation - new, different, ground-breaking, under-appreciated (at first, maybe?)

I'd like to think that I'm innovative with my web presence and my writing, in particular. I'm doing something different with Character Therapy, and really enjoy mixing the two biggest hobbies of my life: writing and counseling.

I'm always searching for something new and different, except in the kitchen. Tried and true is great there. But I like a surprise, a cool idea, a shocking twist.

Group - group work, community, friends, clique

My first thought was not pleasant, I'm afraid. Group work was the bane of my existence in junior high and high school, mainly because I'm so OCD that I took on all the work myself just to make sure things got done right and then everyone would get MY grade. So not fair.

But then I thought about how a group can be such a positive thing, like your community of friends. Even our blogging group of writers, encouraging each other.

Movie - actors, Hollywood, theater, New Moon

Okay, I was a bit surprised at that last one. Guess I'm already looking forward to it coming out in November. But after further thought, I don't want to reflect on any of the words I free associated. I'd rather talk about the medium of motion picture, and how easy it is, with one span of the camera across a room, to capture what could be pages in a book. There are some who prefer the written word (I actually fall into this category), but it's amazing what can be done on film. Premises can be set off in just a few seconds. Narrators can make or break, much like a book. Just an interesting thought.

Expression - face, bright, personal, communicates

I've been told I have an expressive face, in particular my eyes. This is not always a good thing, especially for a therapist. I've had to really work at controlling my features, making sure I'm looking slightly down fro a client, whenever I hear something shocking or unexpected or disgusting. (And it happens, believe me.) That person isn't seeing me to get some commentary (spoken or not) from me, and my expression will do just that: communicate my thoughts. I've gotten better at it with practice. But other times, It's truly a job to be able to communicate TONS of info through an eye blink, slitting my eyes over at someone, puckered lips, what-have-you. There are people who can't do this very well. So even though its somewhat of a professional hazard, it's great to take off my therapist cap and be myself around others.

Memory - remember, fondness, bitterness, soothing

I can only think of two reasons why a person would really remember something. Either the memory was positive or negative. We don't likely remember much about what we ate for dinner unless it was really good or really bad. That makes it memorable. But a run-of-the-mill meatloaf two Sundays ago? Not so much.

Same with emotional memories, I think. Most of our daily lives get dissolved into good or bad memories, while the quaint day-to-day operations generally dissipate and we find ourselves wondering where all the years went. The answer is that the years were filled with average things that didn't warrant a bookmark in our life, so we glazed over them a bit more than we intended. But that stellar performance at work that landed a pay raise, corner office and award? Oh yeah. All over that. Playing catch with your son on a truly incandescently beautiful summer day in a beautiful field? Yeah. We'll remember. Same as when we remember our first break-up or falling from the monkey bars and breaking our arm.

I'll be happy to pass on 5 words to any one who indicates in the comment section that you'd like me to. Makes for an easy post...and you can free associate or not. :)

Q4U: Can you think back (like over a year) to some run-of-the-mill memory? Something that was neither fantastic or horrible? Just curious if people see this the way I do.