On Gnossienne.

gnossienne n. a moment of awareness that someone you’ve known for years still has a private and mysterious inner life, and somewhere in the hallways of their personality is a door locked from the inside, a stairway leading to a wing of the house that you’ve never fully explored — an unfinished attic that will remain maddeningly unknowable to you, because ultimately neither of you has a map, or a master key, or any way of knowing exactly where you stand.

Ten years ago, I stumbled upon this blog called the dictionary of obscure sorrows. The purpose was simple…to come up with new words for obscure and hard to define emotions. What a wild but also utterly fantastic idea. Instead of using words that already exist, why not make more? I loved it.

In particular, the word gnossienne, stuck with me.

You see, I pride myself on the relationships I have in my life. As much as I can, I try to understand people. I ask questions, I relentlessly try to process their way of thinking and I treat them with the understanding I would like from others. The people around me are a representation of me. The loyalty and love I have for them are a testament to the life experiences we’ve gone through. I am at a stage in my life where I know that the people who want to be in my life will make the effort to be. And those that do not…will simply fall away. My people have proven themselves with effort, loyalty and overwhelming support.

However I find this word, gnossienne, interesting because it hits on the fact that there is always more to learn about the people existing in our lives. Whether it’s our parents who have lived long lives before us, or our core friends who are on their own journeys, we do not know everything. We only know the stories that are shared with us…in moments of fun, fear or vulnerability. Every relationship we hold is a continuous learning process.

(I recently checked back on this blog, and found out he’s published his book! Go check it out)