Word to Word by Marnie Pohlmann

Nana’s Journal 

                             - Marnie Pohlmann

She gathered her feelings

With soft word ribbon,

Laced to pages with cursive bows

And teardrops.

Bouquets of pain and hope,

Intertwined with faith,

Pressed into her journal

In ink,

Fading.

Preserved

So generations to follow

Could meet her, 

Know her thoughts,

Feel her love,

Untie their hearts,

And worship her Lord.

My Mom, Olive, was also known as Nana.  We always knew Mom loved playing with words, but it was not until her death that we found how she had been using her talent. She had put a few thoughts into a small journal - thoughts on parenting, insights to Scripture, and opinions about her life circumstances. She wrote in prose, poetry, and prayer. I copied the journal for each of  my siblings, as a legacy to pass on to their children.

Mom and Me

 Chasing after her own nine children as well as a myriad of foster children with a variety of physical, mental, or emotional needs, I did not often see Mom reading, yet I know she enjoyed an assortment of books. I did see Mom do the Scramble puzzle in the newspaper every day, as well as the Cryptogram puzzle, and sometimes the Crossword puzzle, though she did not like the newspaper crosswords as much because they often focused on Hollywood stars, and she did not watch much television.

Mom taught us to play with words, too, especially while traveling or if we ever said we were bored. For example, take the word “conflagration” and see how many words you can make using the letters from this word. What is the largest word you can form? How many three-letter words can you list? At the end of her life, Dad said he found papers on which Mom had been playing this game using the names of her chemotherapy medicines.

Mom used words, both in games and in her journal, to make sense of life. She passed on this method of maintaining sanity to me, so while I may not often write to share with others, I cannot help but write through my emotions and circumstances.

Yes, Mom passed to her kids a love of playing with words, from Scrabble to creative writing. More than playing with words, though, Mom passed on a love of The Word.

As a child sitting through the sermons at church, I loved to lean into Mom and share her Bible. She had notes written in her well-worn King James translation with its cracked black leather cover.  I found some of the treasures she underlined. I loved to read Colossians 1:9-13, which she had noted as her prayer for each of her children.

Mom showed me that God is personal. He spoke through His Word specifically to her, and to her life circumstances, so I knew God would also speak to me as I read His Word. Amid life struggles, Mom showed me I could walk in peace, with God.

I Am Finding

                                   - Olive Shaver Freeman

When one is in a state of complete devastation

God is there!

When one is in great confusion

God is there!

When one feels intense betrayal

God is there!

When one is lost in a feeling of very little or no self-worth

God is there!

When one is searching desperately for the will to go on coping

God is there!

Yes Yes Yes

I am finding

God

Who long ago found me,

Who is with me right where I am

And where God is

There is peace!

The example of my Mom and the words she left are a legacy that leads to God.
May my life and my words also lead to God.

Playing Scrabble - Bonnie Way

The first move is mine. The tiles on my tray are IMQAUOR. If I had an S, I could spell MARQUIS. If I had an E, I could spell MARQUE. The first would be worth gloating over for weeks; to have used all seven letters, on a first move, with a Q in the word too… that would get me enough points to perhaps, just this once, beat my husband. But since I do not have that S, I can only dream about it, while I play just MAR in the middle of the board.

Scrabble is about knowing words, many words, uncommon words. Sometimes, I learn words that I never knew were words. For example, my husband played ZA and insisted it was in the dictionary. If you’ve never heard of it either, I’ll spare you the trouble of going to look it up. Apparently “za” is short for pizza. I’m not sure where exactly that slang is used, but today, I am having za for lunch.

It’s an addictive game, really. I never played it before I started dating my husband. I come from a family where word games were abhorred. My dad is an engineer. My two brothers like reading but are better with their hands. I love reading, writing, words. I could beat them badly at Boggle, Taboo, Balderdash, Upwords, or any other word game we had around the house. So I was relegated to playing with my best friend or with other friends on the rare occasions that we dug out a board game.

My husband grew up playing Scrabble because it was his mom’s favourite game. He’s very good at seeing patterns and playing with his options, rearranging words until he can figure out how to get the most points out of them. After a couple of years of playing with – and losing to – him, I am learning his strategies. However, every time I play what I think is a brilliant, fantastic, high-scoring word, he is still able to play a better word on his next turn. I can’t win.

His sister is a math teacher who plays mathematically. She can calculate the score of an entire word in her head faster than I can figure out what a Q on a double letter score is worth. It’s about putting the words together to form the biggest number – not for the points, but for the numerical fun of it. And so she studies the board, calculating and recalculating, while we wait and study our own letters and wonder what she will play.

I play for the words, the fun of unscrambling the letters on my tray into something that makes sense and then finding the place on the board where they will fit. My husband plays for the words, too, but he comes up with the most uncommon words. Having a linguistics degree helps him, because with that understanding of word formation he comes up with even more uncommon words. SOOTINGS is probably his record word so far. You’re wondering how I let him get away with it. Well, you can argue with him when he explains that soot is a word as is foot, and if you can have a footing then you can footings so why not sootings.

For his birthday just before we got married, I went in search of a Scrabble board. Now you can get travel size Scrabble boards and the deluxe Scrabble board, which spins around so that every player has a fair view of the game and comes with a bag to hold the letters so you don’t have to buy a bottle of Crown Royal as well. After much debate I went with the simple, traditional board. Then the question was – to buy the Scrabble dictionary or not to buy it. We usually used his mom’s old Webster’s dictionary, which, while it had an ample selection of archaic words, is a little short on the more modern words. The Scrabble dictionary, however, has the added advantage of including words that would be only used in Scrabble. Like za.