When my brother was little, he came home from nursery school one day and announced, “I know the S word!”

The parental reaction to this, if I remember correctly, was about halfway between shocked and bemused. And of course we had to figure out if he really did know the S word.

WHAT’S THE S WORD, EZRA?

He didn’t want to say it, because it was a secret, but then he did.

“The S word……….is………sssssssssssssssssnake!”

Snake is a very fine S word, of course. A slippery S word. An S word that is satisfying and sufficient. We’re not there yet though. Not yet.

Today is for the F word. And for all the F words.

I know the F word, you see.

What is the F word?

F is for FLOWERS, which make everything better.

F is frozen and frost, beautiful forms (yes, forms) that water can take.

F is fascination.

F is fixation; not-quite-obsessed.

F is fellowship, company on a path.

F is flips: acrobatics and play.

F is frangipani, a flower I associate with Ounce Dice Trice.

F is fixing.

Fixing in the sense of not trying to fix things.

And in the sense of Tikun: healing. The bringing back together of fragments of our broken vessels.

Also fixing like aiming to do something. And: all the fixings.

The F word is Flow, the state of effortless movement.

Flow is the removing or dissolving of obstacles. Flow is strong beautiful boundaries that are steady, but also flexible. Flexible.

The F word is flexibility: a willingness to go with what is. And a side effect of yoga.

F is flamboyant. Doing things with panache!

F is flourish, like thriving. And like decorative flourishes.

Fortune favors…

The F word is FORTITUDE. Pronounced like this: Fort-i-tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!

That is a word that I will forever associate with my sweet friend Colleen the Signmaker.

F is flying, the best superpower.

F is feathers, which are both clues and wings.

F is forward, a beautiful direction.

F is furnishing, the thing we do with internal and external space, with homes within homes.

F is fish, and all my fellow Pisces friends.

F is finesse — elegance and grace. As my dance teacher says, it is the thing that is more effective than force.

F is firmament, a place for stars.

F is fancy, something I used to frown upon and now find fun.

The F word is FOLLOW. In the dance sense: total presence and receptivity. Feeling rather than thinking. And following a trail. Like a detective or a lover.

F is fortuitous, auspicious, lucky. Fortunate.

F is freedom, the thing I want more than anything else, other than safety.

F is frisson, a sudden thrill. Physical. Fleeting.

F is far, and farther.

F is fortune: good. And fortune: the seeking of. Fortune, in cookies and in general.

F is the force. May it be with you.

F is falling in love.

Or falling like tripping, the good kind.

F is fashion: a delight in costumes (and really, everything is a costume).

Fashion is also a delicious verb….

F is festive. Celebration, warmth, color, decoration.

F is festivities. Rejoicing.

F is finish.

F is feminism, something I feel strongly about.

F is fission: dividing and splitting.

F is fornicate and fatuous, both words I associate with Maude Lebowski.

F is feelings, acknowledging them and letting them exist.

F is the Floop, the nickname for my wonderful online community, the Floating Playground, which is a year that always begins in February, another word that starts with F.

F is functional and functions.

F is all the things that are funny, almost everything really, when you get enough distance from it. A rollicking Buddha laugh for the funniness of life, and all of our sweet misunderstandings.

F is FLIRTING, my favorite everything.

F is fragments, figments, filaments. Bits and pieces, real and imagined.

F is fault, the kind that causes earthquakes, and also a faulty verb because most of the time it is nobody’s fault at all.

F is for fan. Fandom is an experience that changes a person. It is big.

F is fragrant: a scent that captivates.

F is for things factional and fictional, and all the places they meet up.

F is funeral, because everything dies, ends, reconfigures. And this requires a ritual.

F is fractal.

And fractal flowers.

F is forests, places for frolicking.

F is also the Frolicksome Bar, our (edit: defunct) facebook page.

F is falling, and also knowing that you are not really falling.

F is failing, which is either very useful or does not exist, depending on how you look at it. F is for the glorious spectacular Flailures in life that are actually secret doors.

F is for fallacies, uncovering the untruths that we hold onto for reasons that are both legitimate and interesting.

F is flick kicks!

F is flashes and sparks.

F is fruits. And fruits of…

F is fill, filling and fullness.

F is foundations: structure, and the good kind of firmness.

F is feelings, which are not always fun, and the feeling of the feelings, which is also not always fun. Though the feelings are always legitimate, always useful to know about.

F is fundamentals, basics, the thing I will return to teach this year, possibly for the last time.

F is FAITH, the quality that got me through half a year without a home.

F is fondness, a feeling that is both warm and sweet.

F is fungible, a truly fantastic word.

F is Flalaleelaloola, and word I once invented to answer questions. It means: “I love you, and I can’t answer that because it is not actually a question for me, and I love you.”

F is the foxtrot, one of the most graceful dances I know.

F is forage. And forest fruits, the wonderful Hebrew catch-all term for any kind of berry that isn’t a strawberry or a raspberry.

F is the Friday Chicken, where we get to hang out each week, a ritual that has been in effect since August, 2008.

F is FORGIVENESS, which has a silent Be. Both forgiveness and having a silent be are two of the most advanced practices I know of.

F is floating and fluidity.

F is fluency and self-fluency. It is what we do here.

With as many F words as we want, dammit.

F is FREQUENCY, in the sense of how often something happens. And also like a radio. Attunement. Tuning in.

F is finding. Discovery. Locating clues and doors, new ways in or out. What a find.

F is flavor. Richness and sensual pleasure.

Also freak flags, letting them fly.

F is forthrightness. F is fierceness. F is focus. F is frivolity. F is fulfillment. F is friends. F is fuzzy blankets. F is fantasy.

F is glorious joyful flailing. Dancing without rules.

Thank you, letter F.

I am looking forward to whatever [fascinations and frequencies] you have for me. And I’m willing to be surprised.

May it be so! And come play with me.

If you want to whisper words or sound effects that start with F, go for it.

If you want to share in any of the qualities and magical words I named here, you can.

They work like the salves in the Friday Chicken: just take some, there is always more.

And yes, you may use that F word too, if it fits. Sometimes it is fitting. Fitting.

If you want to throw anything into the pot for Rally F this week (Rally! Rally!), go for it.

Waving from the Playground! Whispering loving spells that begin with F, for myself, and for anyone who wants…