Pondering

I used to have a poster on the wall of my office at St. Paul's in New Haven and before that at St. James in Charleston, that said: Sometimes I sits and thinks. And sometimes I just sits.

Since the most used word, I imagine in this space has be "ponder", (which is the sits and thinks part of that poster. I thought I've give you some 'dictionary definition' of 'ponder'.

pon·der

verb \ˈpän-dər\

: to think about or consider (something) carefully

pon·deredpon·der·ing

Full Definition of PONDER

transitive verb

1

:  to weigh in the mind :  appraise <pondered their chances of success>

2

:  to think about :  reflect on <pondered the events of the day>

intransitive verb

:  to think or consider especially quietly, soberly, and deeply

— pon·der·er noun

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Examples of PONDER

1. He pondered the question before he answered.
2. The team pondered their chances of success.
3. We pondered whether we could afford the trip.

Origin of PONDER

Middle English, from Middle French ponderer, from Latin ponderare to weigh, ponder, from ponder-, pondus weight — more at pendant

First Known Use: 14th century

Related to PONDER

Synonyms

chew over, cogitate, consider, contemplate, debate, deliberate, entertain, eye, kick around, meditate, mull (over), perpend, pore (over), question, revolve, ruminate, study, think (about or over), turn, weigh, wrestle (with), beat one's brains out (about), chew on, cudgel one's brains (about), look at

Related Words

muse (upon), reflect (on or upon), reminisce; analyze, explore, review; conclude, reason; second-guess, speculate (about); brood (about or over), dwell (on or upon), fixate (on or upon), fret (about or over), obsess (about or over); believe, conceive, opine; absorb, assimilate, digest, drink (in)

Near Antonyms

disregard, ignore, overlook, slight; dismiss, pooh-pooh (also pooh), reject

more

Synonym Discussion of PONDER

ponder, meditate, muse, ruminate mean to consider or examine attentively or deliberately. ponder implies a careful weighing of a problem or, often, prolonged inconclusive thinking about a matter <pondered the course of action>. meditate implies a definite focusing of one's thoughts on something so as to understand it deeply <meditated on the meaning of life>. muse suggests a more or less focused daydreaming as in remembrance <mused upon childhood joys>. ruminate implies going over the same matter in one's thoughts again and again but suggests little of either purposive thinking or rapt absorption <ruminated on past disappointments>.

 

All this is from the Merriam Webster Dictionary.

I love the "weigh in the mind" piece.

This is what I'm up to most of the time that I'm not sleeping. I want to meditate, muse and ruminate on what's going on around me and within me. I want to chew over, cogitate, consider, deliberate and mull over What It's All About, Alfie?

Like that, 

MUSE on 'pondering' for a bit. I read and re-read the above for 15 minutes or so. Enjoy.