It is no surprise, as an avid reader, and a sometimes hopeful writer, that I have a few favorite words and phrases - words that I say over and over to myself, phrases that I'll say out loud, insert in posts and journal entries and pepper into conversations. One of my favorites has been tumbling around inside my head for a few days now. It is not connected to any particular thing or inserted into my thoughts from reading or talking with someone. It seemed to have just appeared one day and I cannot let it go.
Breach.
The world is full of opportunities for this word - both as a whole and in my very own little part of it. There are so, so many different ways to think about this word and its definitions. It can be both positive and negative, concrete and metaphoric, refer to nature as well as an aspect of our "civilized" world.
The first definition given is that it is an opening, a tear, or a rupture. Sometimes I feel like emotional wounds, familial fights, personal attacks and even our own self-deprecating tendencies to criticize our own selves and efforts and hopes and dreams can cause such breaches. They cut a small opening in your heart, stretch a tear in the fabric of the reality you thought you could count on or a rupture in the relationship that you once held so dear. We are all connected, sometimes tightly, sometimes loosely, but we are all part of each other. But, the things we do or say or are done or said to us, tears that fabric, opening up the weaving of that curtain held between us.
The second definition given is that of a violation, especially that of a contract or legal document. When a contract is violated, when a written statement of intent or promise is breached, there are usually consequences - rarely positive and almost always costing us something. And it is always personal, it is never only business. When suffering is caused or in many cases, demanded, after the breach of a contract - it hurts a person.
The third definition is the breaking up or disruption of friendly relations; an estrangement. We've all broken up with or been broken up with. It's a terrible feeling. But what is worse, is the breaking of those friendly relations. What a silly term but one that is so close. We are social creatures, we enjoy enjoying ourselves with others. We pair off, join up, meet up, plan and agree to go and do and see and feel - together. It is friendly. It is familiar. It is safe. When that relationship, when that comfort, when that familiarity is breached, things look different. Activities and television shows and your favorite food and bars and times of day and the color of the moon's light on your bedroom walls betray you. They are no longer things you enjoy alone, but for a little while, will feel like things stolen from you. They will feel unfriendly, they will only be reminders of the rupture and the tear. And as for estrangement, the word itself is enough to cause a chill a shudder a tear a gasp an attack of anxiety.
The fourth definition is a leap of a whale from the water. The illogical and incomprehensible ability to fly and leap and breach the weight of water by the monsters beneath. They glide, hour after hour, day after day, seemingly without urgency, without fear, without hesitation. And then, for no apparent reason, they breach, they jump, they surface and they play. They do what we would if we were in their massive and watery place - because they can. The water, the ocean, the massive black and blue sea cannot hold them beneath.
I do not know why this complex word has been stuck in my head for days. I love it, and know that I will use it for something, sometime, soon.
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