Does this ever happen to you: Your mind fills with words that don’t seem to have anything to attach to. Whether vocalized or unspoken, these random vocabularies don’t quite coalesce into an idea that might give them shape. So they just roam around, as though looking for a home. Added to this feeling is the possibility that, without a way for them to gather together, these words might splash and scatter, disappearing into time and space until they resurface at other, perhaps-unannounced moments.
This phenomenon occurs just often enough that I wonder whether I’m losing some of my communicating capabilities. “Don’t ideas engender words?” I think to myself. “And if that’s true, why do these bits and pieces of ideas appear in my brain like free radicals in my blood?”
Psycholinguists say that ideas are dependent on words—not the other way around. So perhaps this is normal, like space dust eventually gathering into stars or planets. I’m pretty sure that because I spend time each day in quiet thought, unspoken, unwritten or otherwise uncommunicated lexicons might be wandering around in my brain precisely because they’re waiting to go somewhere, to turn into something measurable! Perhaps that’s why I sometimes grab a few of these whirling words, holding onto them to see how they can grow into a full-fledged idea, or head in a direction with a name.
It’s also possible that I’m just describing another way of praying: Spiritual connective tissue reaching out to God, listening for responses. Maybe this is my brain’s prayer-generator assembling random words and expressions that will eventually form themselves into cogent petitions?
So if unattached words skitter around in your brain, don’t worry. They could just be on their way to form an idea that could be a blessing for someone else.
God knows….
