lithe
For some strange reason the word ‘lithe’ caught my eye recently and as I am wont (custom; habit; practice) to do, I looked the word up in my trusty Webster’s. Somewhat as I suspected, it means: bending readily; pliant; limber; supple or flexible. Now I have seen folks to which this definition could apply but I no longer seem to be one of them myself – if I really ever was.
Lithe is something I see in the movements of a cat and some, but not all, people when they dance. Years ago, when loosening up for a jog with my sister-in-law, I was bending the old back and stretching toward the floor – didn’t reach the floor, but was stretching toward it. I glanced over at my SIL and she had not only reached the floor but had her hands wrapped around her feet, that is lithe – and discouraging to me, I guess one has to do that sort of thing more than once or twice a year.
Another word I stumbled across and gazed at longingly was ‘slender’. One meaning was: having a circumference that is small in proportion to the height or length, such as a slender post. That could even apply to people but the main one for us was: thin or slight or light and graceful, such as slender youths. Looking back in my past, I don’t remember ever being called slender. Back then the horribly descriptive term was skinny or even worse, scrawny.
One of the meanings of the word ‘muscular’ is having well-developed muscles or brawny. The thesaurus supplied other words that mean mostly the same thing: strong, husky, powerful, burly, brawny, tough, strapping, well-developed, fit, athletic and sinewy. After much consideration and tough realization I arrived at the cold hard fact that if any of these words applied to me at all they would have to be prefaced with the words semi or slightly or the phrase ‘maybe used to be’.
Then there is the word agile – meaning quick and well-coordinated in movement or nimble, also active or lively. I’m not sure that I have ever been agile on purpose, at least not in the full meaning of the word. A few times I have been accidentally agile, like dodging something either thrown or self-propelled. Of course it could just as well have gone the other way, I could have dodged INTO the path of the aforementioned objects.
The word agile also encompasses mental areas as well and means to be marked by an ability to think quickly and/or be mentally acute or aware. I’m just not sure if this part of the meaning applies to me and to what extent. I’m reasonable sure that I can think quicker than the common amoeba and I am aware when things swat me in the face. This may leave me not looking like very much in the eyes of the world, but I know, that I know, that I have a Heavenly Father that loves me very much, and that is enough for me. ec
Lithe is something I see in the movements of a cat and some, but not all, people when they dance. Years ago, when loosening up for a jog with my sister-in-law, I was bending the old back and stretching toward the floor – didn’t reach the floor, but was stretching toward it. I glanced over at my SIL and she had not only reached the floor but had her hands wrapped around her feet, that is lithe – and discouraging to me, I guess one has to do that sort of thing more than once or twice a year.
Another word I stumbled across and gazed at longingly was ‘slender’. One meaning was: having a circumference that is small in proportion to the height or length, such as a slender post. That could even apply to people but the main one for us was: thin or slight or light and graceful, such as slender youths. Looking back in my past, I don’t remember ever being called slender. Back then the horribly descriptive term was skinny or even worse, scrawny.
One of the meanings of the word ‘muscular’ is having well-developed muscles or brawny. The thesaurus supplied other words that mean mostly the same thing: strong, husky, powerful, burly, brawny, tough, strapping, well-developed, fit, athletic and sinewy. After much consideration and tough realization I arrived at the cold hard fact that if any of these words applied to me at all they would have to be prefaced with the words semi or slightly or the phrase ‘maybe used to be’.
Then there is the word agile – meaning quick and well-coordinated in movement or nimble, also active or lively. I’m not sure that I have ever been agile on purpose, at least not in the full meaning of the word. A few times I have been accidentally agile, like dodging something either thrown or self-propelled. Of course it could just as well have gone the other way, I could have dodged INTO the path of the aforementioned objects.
The word agile also encompasses mental areas as well and means to be marked by an ability to think quickly and/or be mentally acute or aware. I’m just not sure if this part of the meaning applies to me and to what extent. I’m reasonable sure that I can think quicker than the common amoeba and I am aware when things swat me in the face. This may leave me not looking like very much in the eyes of the world, but I know, that I know, that I have a Heavenly Father that loves me very much, and that is enough for me. ec
posted by mreddie | 11:43 PM
7 Comments:
I watch my girls dance (and do the limbo from time to time). If I tried that, they'd have to carry me out on a board.
Re your comment - we're expecting a drop in temperature followed by rain and thunderstorms over the next week.
Mom and baby still doing well.
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Hi Mr Eddie ~~ Some words well
explained. I have never been lithe or agile but about 50 years ago, I was slender. Glad you liked the Vovo
joke. Take care, Merle.
This is an unusual approach to theology - thin in places, yet flowing sinuously, as it were...
granny - Years ago the wife and I attended a company party and several were dancing - certainly not I with my two left feet. A friend of mine and his wife, both originally from Germany, were waltzing and it was a beautiful thing, absolutely flowing all over the floor. I admired them from the sidelines.
merle - A modicum of agility was once mine but seems to have ebbed away with age.
darius - Thanks for the visit and comment. ec
I still dance, and climb mountains....but, my breathing is not what it used to be. Gotta stop and catch my breath. But, I plan to dance until the end. I knew a woman who broke her hip dancing, at 104. And, it killed her - I'd like to go out like that.
bonita - Yes, it would be good to leave this life doing what you enjoy. Someone wrote that they would like to go out of this life peacefully and in their sleep like their grandpa, unlike the terrified and screaming passengers in his car. ec
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