#AdventWord Day Five: #Abide. Growing up with the Bible as my main literary influence, a lot of my vocabulary and linguistic preferences echo the language of the Bible. It used to drive my English professor crazy, with all my long, flowery sentences, archaic word usage, and using "which" instead of "that." Well, the major definition of "abide"'for me is to dwell or live in something, mainly because of the way it is used in the Bible. It wasn't until today that I looked the word up (after seeing so many people use it differently) to find that this usage is considered archaic. I love the word when used to speak of an abiding (indwelling or living) thing, or abiding with a person, and yet it grates on me when people say, "I just can't abide that language" or something similar. It makes me wonder just how much language has been influenced by sacred texts and stories. The photo is of my Bible from my ministry days, and is literally falling apart from use. Even when I left religion, this book continued to shape my words, thoughts, and actions, continuing to abide in me in some way even when I thought I hated it. When I got my old Bible out to photograph for today's word, I opened exactly to the right page without even looking. It was as if my muscle memory just knew the precise pages to split when opening, as if the book was just an extension of me, opening like a palm to the exact passage I needed. Years ago I would have instantly taken that as a sign, and Richard was amazed, but now I find that I also have an abiding sense of skepticism. It is harder to trust in the miraculous now that I've lived more life and suffered more losses. I think of abiding fears and traumas in people with PTSD and anxiety disorders, biases and injustices that abide in systems like a cancer. Like the Bible abiding in me, shaping even my language and filters, what else abides in us below the level of our perceptions? And does anything I've said or done abide in someone else in some way? #gspadvent