By Brenda Cannon Henley
I have loved words ever since I can remember. Perhaps this love came to me by way of my delightful Uncle Donald who loved words, books, reading, discovering, and learning. He would read to me before I learned to read for myself. One of his practices was to spend hours in the local library perusing the shelves for fun, interesting, educational, and age appropriate books for his sons or me to read. He would expect me to read the selections, and on his return visit, be prepared to give a brief, verbal report of the main thoughts of the book he had chosen. A bad report earned nothing, but a good and enthusiastic one could net a quarter, dime, or nickel. A really good one could cause a half dollar go from his hand to mine, and only once or twice, a paper dollar bill.
What he gave me, money could never buy. He made me feel valuable, worthy, important, and intelligent, and he taught me to travel the world through books. I met interesting people, saw far away lands, sailed the seas, climbed mountains, learned history, geography, English, fashion, manners, and so much more.
Words became attractive to me and I became drawn to them. English was always my favorite subject and I was one of two students in the class that absolutely loved creative writing in high school. Erma Nowell became my favorite teacher and a lifelong friend. She told me I could write and I believed her. One of my first assignments was to write about a door knob, and boy did I love that.
Scrabble has always been my favorite board game and I’ve played in a few tournaments. Learning a new word is super fun to me, and I have several friends that make it a practice to send me interesting and obscure words.
I have found that words don’t always make you think the same thing or even cause one to feel the same emotions. For instance, the word, “divorce,” doesn’t cut so sharply until the little word, “my,” precedes it. “Widow” did not pierce my heart until eight years ago when I buried my husband.
Six weeks ago, I didn’t have a clue what “clear margins” meant, but I learned that last Thursday. Four weeks before I had been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer growing in my leg. Underwent surgery to remove the growths on July 7, and on July 21, heard the words, “clear margins,” meaning the surgeons believe they got it all.
Those two words became very important to me very quickly, and I thank God for them.
Proverbs 25:11 teaches “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at 409 781 8788, or
[email protected]
[Jul-26-2022]
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