When I’m journaling, I often write the word “spirit.” But many times my quick scribbling produces “sprit” instead, and automatically I go back and pen over it to correct it. The other day, after having done this several times in one sitting, I stopped my train of thought and truly noticed what my pen seemed to want on the page. And I was delighted. So many words and images popped into my head as I looked at the phrase “filling her life with sprit”:

• spree (whee! How fun!)
• spit (a bit of vinegar, sassy and full of life)
• grit (as in being rubbed and polished by life’s girt—I mean grit)
• sparkles
• something quick and dashy, like a flash of light (big sparkles?)
• the sound of a magic wand as it touches something to transform it–wooah, I actually typed magic “want” at first—equally cool! (as in “let’s change this pumpkin into a beautiful carriage—SPRIT!” with sparkles all around)

So I will not be changing “sprit” back to “spirit” any time  soon—I think it describes the idea better than the other, overused word.

And sprit is definitely what I want more of in my life (and yes, it really ought to be in italics)!

It’s not uncommon for a combo word like this (a portmanteau for you English majors) to pop out and amuse me when I am typing or speaking enthusiastically. A recent appearance is interlap, expressing what all our lives do: intersect, interconnect, overlap and interweave with each other.  I think this may be happening to me more often, both in speaking and now in writing, too.

I choose to believe this is NOT incipient dementia (or simply sloppy penmanship), but rather Messages from a Higher (more jovial) Place: home of sprites, angels, witches, sages, talking trees, dragons, fairy godmothers with wands who understand wants, and every healthy archetypal energy known to humans and animals.

I know others do this; writers of ads and self-help books frequently intentionally create such words. But when they arrive unbidden they feel like a gift, or a joke, or maybe a poke.

What fun words have visited you lately?  Do tell.

(Yes, the artwork is mine.)