wabi-sabi
noun
A Japanese worldview centred on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.
A cracked teacup my mother refused to throw away. It pours perfectly. The crack is part of its history now.
Japanese
A word found you
numinous
adjective
Having a strong spiritual or mysterious quality; suggesting the presence of something greater.
A cathedral in Prague, midweek, almost empty. Light coming through a window I couldn't see. I am not religious. I was not sure what I was feeling. It was bigger than me.
Latin: numen, divine will
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nostalgia
noun
A sentimental longing for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.
My old playlist on shuffle. A song from when I was 19 and had no idea what was coming. I sat in the car and didn't go inside for ten minutes.
Greek: nostos (homecoming) + algos (pain)
lucent
adjective
Glowing with or giving off light; luminously clear.
My daughter's face when she understood something for the first time. The word just lit up. That is the only way to describe it.
Latin: lucens, shining
respite
noun
A short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.
A Wednesday afternoon off when everyone else was working. I sat in a café and read for three hours. Nothing was solved. Everything felt manageable again.
hiraeth
noun
A Welsh longing for home that you cannot return to, or that never was.
Driving back through the town I grew up in. Everything smaller than I remembered. Missing something I couldn't name.
Welsh
A word stops you in a book.
Someone names a feeling you have carried for years.
You write it down. It vanishes by morning.
Words that stop you deserve more than a screenshot.
Save the word and the moment it found you. Each day, one word from your collection resurfaces. Not when you ask for it. When you need it.
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What word stopped you last?
Save it here with the moment it found you.
It will find its way back.