Words have power and create realities.
Words can transport one far beyond the everyday, into a place of blissful escape. Words can transport you into the wild beyond.
Lately I’ve been exploring the more obscure dictionaries for words that capture the zeitgeist (there’s one of them, actually) of living more wildly, closer to nature.
ALSO READ: LETTER FROM THE WILD: Loving the country roads of our beautiful country
It turns out that over the centuries, linguists and poets have found countless ways to express their love and appreciation for our natural world, creating a whole new lexicon.
Across the continents, certain expressions so entirely and accurately describe the simplicity and perfection of being in nature’s embrace, that one wonders why they aren’t more mainstream. Here, then, are some that may embiggen your vocabulary.
Last month I spoke about coddiwompling, a wonderful way of sauntering and sashaying one’s way along the road less travelled, to eventually arrive somewhere. Or not.
I’ve since delved further into the treasure chest of descriptive words across numerous languages and am thoroughly delighted with my discoveries.
So, for those who share my love for all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small (that’s you, green panthers, aesthetes and philocalists, perhaps hodophiles with a streak of eleutheromania – a frantic zeal for freedom), try peppering your lives with these:
The German language may seem hard on the ear at times, but they sure know how to impart a meaning now and then that no other language quite manages to.
Take the word fernweh – an ache to explore far-flung places (or far-sickness, if you like). Who didn’t have a touch of THAT during the past year? Closely mirroring this is the word sehnsucht – an indescribable yearning for far-off places.
For those with a deep love of trees (or to put a perfect word on it, nemophilists, also known as haunters of woods), here are a few to try on for size:
Dendrophile – a person who loves forests and trees; waldeinsamkeit – the feeling of being alone in a forest; Psithurism – the sound of the wind in the trees, also described as susurrous (whispering, rustling).
The Japanese term shinrin-yoku means forest bathing, a practice proven to have measurable (perhaps immeasurable?) benefits for mind and soul.
So off you go, find yourself a trunnel (a road or path where, in summer, the leaves of the trees on both sides form a canopy) and bask in the shivelight (lances of sunlight that pierce the canopy of a wood). Your ancient fairy spirit will thank you.
Some people are inextricably drawn to the ocean – we call them thalassophiles.
Others may be ombrophilous (rain-loving) or call themselves a limnophile (lover of lakes). Devotees of moonlit nights (selenophiles) would revere gumusservi, a Turkish word for moonlight shining on water; or indeed find themselves enchanted by a moonwake – when the moon’s reflection on water seems to follow you when you walk.
And who doesn’t revel in the pleasure of petrichor – the earthy smell that follows rainfall? Perhaps you’re a solivagant (lone wanderer) seeking Utopia, or a state of Nirvana, where you can just indulge in some apricity (basking in the sun).
You might be a nefelibata (a cloud walker, or an individual who lives in the clouds of her own imagination or dreams).
Even if you can’t always be in a truly wild piece of nature, your inner wild can take you there to a place of ‘yugen’ (a Japanese word referring to the awareness that the universe is so profound that the emotions we feel when we try to contemplate it are too deep and mysterious to convey).
Ultimately, with the right frame of mind, you may even achieve a state of ambedo – a melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details – briefly soaking in the experience of being alive.
Couldn’t we all do with the utter bliss of being so fully centred and present in the moment that we forget all about our worldly woes, taxes, deadlines, tragedies and stresses?
So, my wish for you, my fellow livsnjutare (enjoyer of life, who loves life deeply and lives it to the extreme), is that you find your own smultronstalle – ‘rare moments of peaceful tranquillity’ – as you follow your vagary (a whimsical or roaming journey) between the hurly-burly of everyday life.
Go, seek your wild.
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