A new (to me) brain exercise boosted my outlook this morning.

I’ve been hearing about this little game for a couple years. When sitting in coffee shops around the west side of L.A. a nearby table would often devolve into excited fits of excitement about their recent successes with the puzzle: WORDL.

So, this morning after doing a little word work on the pages of a manuscript I’m editing, I’ve gotten it whittled down substantially, I hit the NY Times pages, soon steered off the gripping news and made my way to the adult brain teasers. I opened a fresh jumble of letters and mish-mashed them for about 10 minutes.

Then, just as I was growing frustrated. I thought, goodness, let’s give it one more try and Voila! the individual letters for the word of the day seemed to dance into place on the computer screen. I won’t tell you the answer but here’s a hint: it cuts like a knife…just like surrendering to complexity creates a symmetry of simplicity.

Have a great time with your use of language this week; whether on the page or in conversation how we put it all together makes all the difference, that and letting go.

A.H.