While we're on the subject of words...

You know how sometimes certain words start to become layered with connotations and associations, to the point where you wish you could make up a new, fresh word for the act or thing? That's how I feel about "meditation." I feel like, when I use the word "meditation" around people who don't do it, it seems to immediately conjure up this image of a naked, long-haired, extremely-flexible yogi chanting to himself while the sun rises in the background. Or I feel like the word is overused so much that it's taken on this construct of something silly that flaky people do. Or, even on a good day, it just doesn't seem to adequately describe what an awesome, mind-blowing experience the practice can be. 
So I'm trying to come up with a different word for it, to use just for myself, that describes more of what it feels like to me. Soul-mining was one that I started using a little while ago... Because it feels like wonder, or sailing on an arctic sea, or doing soaring dives off a mountain cliff, or digging deep to find out who you really are...when no one's looking, when you're just quiet and alone and allowed to think. Just think. And then not think. It doesn't feel like sunrises or chanting or bells to me. And there's something really awesome about that, you know? That it's not the same for everyone, and that kind of the whole point of it is that you don't get it until you get it.  Words. Because we can make them up and they can still be real, no matter what this guy says.