Genesis
Word Lab

One word can change everything.

Swap a word. Watch the picture and the story change together.

Once there was a dragon on a mossy hill under a wide sky. It looked around, waiting for its story to begin.

The picture goes here

a friendly round green dragon with small wings

What kind of dragon?
Levels

Spot opens after three describing words.

Same dragon, same seed — only the word changes.

A describing word (an adjective) sits in front of a noun and changes how we see it — and how the story goes.

Try another creature
The Word Trail

Your trail starts with one word.

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Try 3 describing words, 3 feelings, and 3 turns.

Describing words 0/3 · Feelings 0/3 · Turns 0/3

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The path

Where you are, and where it leads.

1Big feelings have namesSelf-control — to learn: Choosing what you do, instead of letting a big feeling choose for you.Gentleness — to learn: Being soft with people and things, especially when you are strong.Contentment — to learn: Being glad with what you have, instead of always wanting the next thing.2What the face saysCaring — to learn: Feeling what someone else feels, and caring about it.Kindness — to learn: Being gentle and helpful to others because they matter.3Scared, and brave anywayCourage — to learn: Doing the right thing even while you are scared.Big-heartedness — to learn: Daring to try the great good thing you could do, and not shrinking to stay safe or small.4One step, then the nextPatience — to learn: Staying calm and kind while you wait for something hard to pass.Keeping going — to learn: Trying again and again until the good thing is done.Hard work — to learn: Doing the whole job well, even the boring middle part, instead of drifting off.Listening — to learn: Hearing the grown-ups who care for you, and doing what they ask even when you'd rather not.5Because I didHonesty — to learn: Telling the truth, even when a fib would be easier.Fairness — to learn: Making sure everyone gets a turn and nobody is left out.Gratitude — to learn: Noticing the good things you were given, and saying thank you.Forgiving — to learn: Letting someone start again after they got it wrong.Loyalty — to learn: Staying with your friends and your promises, especially when it gets hard.6The choice that makes youThinking first — to learn: Thinking about what will happen before you do it, and then doing the good thing well.Humility — to learn: Knowing you are not the best at everything, and being glad to learn.Faith — to learn: Trusting that God is real and good, even when you cannot see him.Trust — to learn: Leaning on God's help when you cannot do it alone, and letting yourself be helped.Hope — to learn: Believing good is coming, and that God will help you reach it.Love — to learn: Loving God most of all, and loving everyone else because he loves them.Joy — to learn: A gladness that stays even when the day is hard, because you are loved.Peace — to learn: A quiet, settled heart — and helping others settle too, instead of stirring things up.
You are at stage 1 — Big feelings have names.

Tap a stage to open it.

Stage 1 of 6 — Big feelings have names · Self-control, Gentleness, Contentment

What the hero learns: When you can name the big feeling, it gets a little smaller — and you get to choose what to do.

What's going on inside: A feeling is a real thing with a name. Naming it is the first way to hold it instead of it holding you.

The words: A describing word changes the picture: a sleepy dragon and a grumpy dragon are two different dragons.

Self-controlGentlenessContentment

For grown-ups: where this comes from

No age is set yet, so the lab asks as it would for ages 4–6. How the lab asks: Early Childhood, ages 1–5 — pattern over plot. Little ones learn a story by hearing the same words again and again, so after each pick the lab gives a line to say together and something in the picture to point to and name. The kind of question follows the reader's age (1–5: say it together, then point and name · 6–11: what happens next · 12–17: what a character feels but doesn't say · 18–21: an open question with no right answer) — factual, then interpretive, then dialogic, the three kinds of question in facilitated dialogue.

  • ST II-II Q.141 (temperance), Q.143 (its parts), Q.157 (meekness)
  • CCC 1809 (temperance moderates the attraction of pleasures)
  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics II.1 (moral virtue comes by habit); III.10–12 (temperance)
  • CCC 1810, 1839 (the human virtues are acquired by education and deliberate acts)
  • Jung, Man and His Symbols (1964), Part 1 'Approaching the Unconscious' (feeling as a function; the unnamed is what overwhelms)
  • Peterson, 12 Rules for Life (2018), Rule 10 'Be precise in your speech'
  • Peterson, Maps of Meaning (1999), ch. 1 'Maps of Experience' (the unknown becomes the known by being named)