Monday, April 2, 2012

Bogie

my A to Z - every day of the challenge I will find a word by flinging my finger into my American Heritage Dictionary and then riff on it. The posts may be essays or poems or stories or memories. Who knows what will happen when we give Serendipity her wanton way?
BOGIE
a variant of bogy, bogey 1. An evil or mischievous spirit; hobgoblin. 2. Something that causes annoyance or harassment. (Orig. unknown.)

a little home for something?!

I grew up believing in all sorts of spirits - in fairies and elves, goblins, witches and mischievious spirits! They inhabited my mind and I saw there living places in the woods where I played. If they were mischievious and sometimes evil, wasn't it because we had stopped believing in them? If we were like my Scottish and Irish ancestors we would leave little bowls of cream on the window sill.  In my practice as a Buddhist we leave offerings for 'lesser beings' (sometimes we call them lesser beans and giggle). I think 'lesser' doesn't mean less worthy but smaller. We need to take care of our inner bogies in a similar way - those tiny voices that shriek at us in a register that hurts our dog's ears. They are twirling around in side our psyches demanding that we recognize them - sure they rage and have miniature hissy-fits but only because we pretend they don't exist. A writer's bogies can be terrible - when we don't serve our art those bogies get wild. If they get too starved of the cream of our attention they will get very quiet - they might curl up and die from our neglect. Then we're in big trouble. When your bogies are sticking their miniscule but sharp little knives in us - we best wake up and see what they need. It is always the same - love, respect and attention. That will tame those bogies. I'm going to give mine some today. How about you?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

bogies..

Well I dont have that word, but i too grew up seeing little folk everywhere and still leave bowls of milk, a dash of honey and maybe some bread in it...

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I love that you are thumbing through the dictionary for your A to Z words. How cool is that? I'm a big dictionary fan. I actually like to sit down and READ it now and then. Fascinating stuff, words!

Anonymous said...

Jan - Great choice for "B!" We all have those personal bogies I think. For each of us they're different but they exist. How right you are that we do no good ignoring them. We need to acknowledge that they're there and take care of ourselves.

S.A. Larsenッ said...

There is just something creepy about the word bogie. *shivers

Bish Denham said...

I do my best to feed and care for my inner bogies. Externally, I build cairns where they can live and play. Internally I give thanks.

Unknown said...

Poor, poor bogies. Feel bad for them and never knew they existed until this morning. Thanks for the enlightenment. Enjoying the varied A-Z posts this year.

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

I like your ideas for taming them! Good advice, Jan.

cleemckenzie said...

I've got some bogies to tame, too. Are there a lot of them out and about?

Elspeth Futcher said...

I loved this Jan! Thanks.

Hart Johnson said...

I really love the mischievous end of these little creatures. Bogies though, also run into the scary, don't they? Isn't this the origin of boogie men? I like the sound of yours though.

jabblog said...

Fairies, elves, goblins, gnomes, sprites, dwarves - all familiar but to a Brit a bogey,(bogie, bogy) is something that lives in a nose!! A bogey-man is a malevolent being, something to frighten small, disobedient children.

Rosalind Adam said...

I'm not sure if I view my inner bogie as in the same world as fairies and goblins. My inner bogie is coming from me. When it screams at me then I believe it's my self-conscious screaming at me... which it often does.

I'm blogging the A to Z Challenge too at A to Z of Nostalgia

Carol Kilgore said...

Oh, I agree with this. I think my lesser writing beans like pretzels in addition to love, respect, and attention. I gave mine lots of everything today. Except pretzels.

Duncan D. Horne - the Kuantan blogger said...

Or something sticky that comes out of your nose!

This is me, Duncan D. Horne, visiting you from the A-Z challenge, wishing you all the best throughout April and beyond.

Duncan In Kuantan