The Effect of a Single Word

Where I live in the Berkshire Mountains, we have already received our first lasting snowfall. Daylight is disappearing earlier as we move toward year-end holidays with the winter solstice, marking the first day of the winter season, now less than two weeks away. If you love this time of year, your mind might be starting to fill with warm memories of friends, family, and cherished experiences.

Nights now seem darker and stars brighter. There is the distinct swirl of wood smoke drifting upward from stoves and fireplaces, carrying the sweet scents of cherry, birch, oak, and maple logs up and down the narrow roads in my neck of the woodland. In the distance is the area's highest peak. Streams of light mark trails for skiers and snowboarders as they slide down the slopes, snow spinning around them luminously.

Various parts of each day start getting progressively more festive now. Depending on where you live, this might be punctuated by early seasonal displays along the streets and in storefronts. Radio stations share a plethora of holiday music. TV stations report on stories that generate a positive vibe of goodwill. Performing arts centers tailor their events to the feel of the season. And suddenly the holiday vibe is everywhere.

Many heartwarming details steeped in memory likely begin to emerge. If you love this time of year, you are probably recalling some delicious ones of your own. I want to share this one simple reflection. You can try to garner a little more positivity from an old “story" that may be lingering in your mind.

Source: Image by Mollyroselee from Pixabay

A Single Word Can Make a Difference

Poet Robert Frost was the type of writer whose word selections were quite intentional. His poem, Acquainted with the Night, for example, Frost strategically uses the word, furthest, in his line, “I have outwalked the furthest city light.” That one word can make a dramatic difference in one’s appreciation of the lyric—furthest refers to an unmeasurable difference, whereas farthest (which some would consider technically correct) would be calculable.

Reflecting on that, one can consider (if you wish for more impact from the piece) what kind of walk Frost would be on that it could not be physically measured? Is this distance and walk one taking place in the far recesses of his mind? The answer is probably yes, and that makes a big difference in where your own thoughts may go as you ponder the poem and its feels.

In his poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Frost uses verbiage like sweep, easy wind, and downy flake. You may like to give the poem a read. You can try taking each word one at a time and ponder it, try to “see it,” or “hear” it, or “feel” it in your mind, making each its own visceral experience—your experience. Use your senses—hearing the sweep (of wind) or seeing it, or feeling it on your face. You can do the same with the words easy, downy, and flake. Swirling them around in your mind from as many angles as you can, all the different feels. You can make your own mental movie of them, enjoy them in ways you haven’t before, letting your mind go where it will.

Winter Wonderland

You can do the same with music. Winter Wonderland has been around and enjoyed since 1934. The song's refrain contains the well-known line, walking in a winter wonderland. The words were written in this way by lyricist Richard B. Smith, but some performers have substituted the article “the” for “a,” so it reads, walking in the winter wonderland. One singer who made the switch, albeit in the middle of the song, was Frank Sinatra. However, that one word can make an enormous difference in the way some individuals can experience this wonderful tune. It may be easy to see that Sinatra's use of “the” makes the “place,” the wonderland, all the more special—now it isn’t just any wintery place where these things could be happening, but it is “the” place where things like this can happen.

To the point, if you take this “realization” a step further and reflect on it, using the word, the, makes the wonderland a specific place, not just any old place where these things could be happening. But a place we might all know, a special, specific place of happenings and beauty. You can savor all the nuances and plethora of details.

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I encourage you to try this mode, reflecting on just single words within the lyrics of your favorite holiday songs to render even more pleasure out of them. Pick a few words and try it out. If your mind wants to go to meaning, let it go freely there. If to images or personal memories, then there. When you hear the tune after, listen for those parts you reflected on and enjoy them even more richly.¹

This practice doesn't have to be just a holiday thing. You can use it for ramping up positivity and pleasure from your favorite music year-round.