After asking a lady a question, she started to answer then stopped and said, “Oh my, I just went brain dead. I can’t think of the word I want.”

I said, “That happens to me all the time,” not to compete with her but to assure her I was fine waiting until she found the word she wanted. She did.

As a writer, words elude me regularly. Even today, I was writing and became baffled. I knew what word I wanted, but the word “speculative” came to me and I typed it out only to stare at it and think, “Something is wrong with this. Is the p in the wrong place? I don’t think it’s what I mean.”

No other words for that particular spot in the article came to me. I changed speculation to hesitation and felt better.

It was hours later, on a walk, when it dawned on I was looking for “skeptical.” Thankfully, my deadline isn’t passed, so I can change it.

We aren’t brain dead. They are just words. They come and go. We have gestures and tones to overpower the lack of the correct word.

My interview went fine this morning. The lady became comfortable and fulfilled the article need.

At the end of the day, my vocabulary has sometimes been reduced to 8 words. Hi, no, yes, maybe, I’m hungry, that thingy. Alas, life and love go on.

“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”—I Peter 2:15-16, ESV