Happy TEDx Tuesday!
I was listening to a podcast last week when I heard Dr. Zach Bush talk about language in a way I had never thought about before.
He talks about how Western languages, particularly English, are dominated by nouns. We name everything.
A tree. A table. A person. And in doing that, we can start to experience the world as a collection of separate, fixed things.
A tree becomes "a tree," something over there, separate from the soil underneath it, the air around it, the light it's receiving, and me, standing off to the side looking at it.
Dr. Bush contrasts that with indigenous languages and worldviews that are more rooted in verbs and processes.
Instead of a world made up of separate things, everything is a verb... everything is happening.
Moving.
Exchanging energy.
Connecting.
Becoming.
A tree isn't simply a tree. A tree is tree-ing.
Growing. Changing. Losing its leaves. Growing new ones. Exchanging energy with the soil, the air, the light around it, and the viewer.
It's not separate from life. It's participating in it.
Which made me think... I'm not just Jenn. I'm Jenn-ing.
You are YOU-ing.
We spend so much of our lives trying to become some finished version of ourselves.
Healed.
Successful.
Happy.
At peace.
Enough.
As if one day we're going to wake up and think: There. Nailed it. I'm done.
But if we are a verb, there is no finished version.
We're always being. Always becoming. Always happening.
The tree is treeing.
The table is table-ing.
You are YOU-ing.
And we are all LIFE-ing.
Life is flowing, and the chapters are chapter-ing through us.
We're meeting each other, affecting each other, loving each other, disappointing each other, inspiring each other, connecting and co-creating as we go.
Nothing is standing still. Nothing is stuck. We are all verbs, already in motion.
I'm already happening. And so are you.
So here's my question for this TEDx Tuesday: What changes when you stop trying to become who you think you're supposed to be... and start loving the infinite process of YOU-ing?
Love,
Jenn
P.S. If you haven't seen my TEDx talk, you can watch it here:
🎥 The Question That Can Change Everything | TEDxRobinson Road