Vivify

Word of the Day Monday, February 15, 2010

vivify

\VIV-uh-fy\ , transitive verb;

1. To endue with life; to make alive; to animate.
2. To make more lively or intense.

Marvin slouched down further in his seat and struggled to keep his eyes open. The lecture hall was overly warm and stuffy, and Professor Hilldebrand was droning on in his usual monotone creating a perfect atmosphere for a nap. Marvin had always figured that if he made it to the lecture for his classes he would probably glean at least a little bit of knowledge for the effort, but as he looked down at the notes in front of him it was apparent that he had perfected the art of taking notes on autopilot. Luckily he was taking the class as a GPA buffer.

He looked out the window and saw that they drizzly Seattle morning had cleared up into a beautifully clear afternoon. Blue skies in February in Seattle was one occurrence that Marvin always felt extremely grateful for. Waiting out the long winter months of overcast skies and rain always started to seem like a mandatory sentencing, an unexpected preview of summer always felt like a winning lottery ticket. Of course, most of his classmates had decided not to go tot class that day, and considering that he easily could have taken his nap outside in the sun surrounded by the freshly bloomed daffodils, he forlornly wished he was skipping class as well.

The thought of enjoying a preview of spring and the return of the greenery in Seattle landscape had a vivifying effect on him, and instead of being rudely awaken at the end of the lecture he was one of the first students to scramble his papers together and bolt out the door. In his haste he neglected to notice the tall, slim, blonde girl coming around the corner finishing up the couple of notes to her Comparative Religion class and he collided into her creating a grandiose spillage of paper across the hallway.

A frown creased the girl's pretty forehead and Marvin immediately started to babble his defense. "What exactly is the emergency?" she interrupted his rambling impatiently. "I, uh, I need to go take a nap under the daffodils," he blurted out. A hint of a smile peaked at the corner of her mouth, "Really?" she asked skeptically. "Oh you know, 'In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.' " he repeated with a crooked smile.

The frown on the girl's forehead had melted completely and had been replaced with a smile, "My name is Diane, and I'd like to go see this daffodil napping place of yours."