sticks and stones

the tongue has the power of life and death,

and those who love it will eat its fruit

proverbs 18:21 (niv)

words.

they are such small things.

deceptively small.

the written word: seemingly nothing more than an assembly of sound-representing symbols.

the spoken word: a vocalization of sequential sounds that translate thoughts into an audible form.

the primary function of the word: the translation of thought into a form that is useful for communication.

with our words, we wield an incredible power. we combine them into sequences that reflect our thoughts and our attitudes. then, we unleash them into the world. once they have been unleashed, they do something almost, well... dare i say magickal?

the moment these words penetrate another human being, they change things...

(a brief tangent)

information. information is the primary thing that words introduce to a person when they are received. information can be useful, or it can be useless. it can be productive, and it can be destructive.

here is an anomaly: misinformation. this anomaly occurs in two forms. intentional, and unintentional.

intentional misinformation is also known as a lie, and unintentional misinformation can also be called ignorance.

(tangent concluded XD)

so, getting back to this notion that words change things...

i have found that when my attitude is good, i tend to speak good things. positivity flows from me. and often the things that i speak produce a chain reaction that begins to influence the people who receive the words that i am speaking. of course, the same holds true vice-versa. when someone enters the scene who is flowing with positivity and who is pouring that positivity out through their mouth, it has a definite and recognizable influence on the way that i feel. sometimes their words can evoke a smile from me, and perhaps a laugh will follow. when these things begin to happen, the magick compounds. but that is another story for another day.

i can build up and design and decorate a wonderful atmosphere of positivity all around me. this building takes time, effort, and commitment.

now, another thing that i have discovered is that with one fell swoop of the tongue i can tear down all that i have labored to build. unfortunately, sometimes i don't stop right away either. sometimes, i slice and cut and bash and just do everything i can to wreak as much devastation upon things as possible. it's bad enough that i have destroyed the product of my labor, even worse is this: people get wounded in these attacks...

i am rather well practised at the art of destruction. i have caused more pain to people that i love and care about with my words than i ever wanted to. i am severely lacking in self-control. once the gates open, i have one helluva time closing them again. it is only by the grace of the one who created me that anyone still wants to put up with me or have me be a part of their life. 

it is not necessarily easy to keep the mouth closed sometimes. indisputably, however, it is a far easier thing to keep silent than it is to deal with the wreckage that is produced once my mouth has had it's untamed way with people.

once the power of the word is unleashed, once it's influence has flown, there is no taking it back. there is no undoing the magick of the word. for better or for worse, we will eat the fruits of our lips.

"it is as easy to draw back a stone thrown with force from the hand, 

as to recall a word once spoken."

~menander

none of us are perfect. all of us will speak things that we will later wish we could simply erase from history. it's part of being human. it is experience and it is a part of our education in the schoolroom of life. life is meant to be lived. mistakes are meant to be learned from. let us make an effort, for our own sakes and for the sakes of the rest of the humans that we share this world and this lifetime with, to keep the repetition to a minimum. let us pay attention to what we are doing. we ought to be considerate of the effect that the externalization of our feelings will have on other people. don't forget that the affect that you have on other people's lives is essentially the proverbial bed that you are making, and you are going to have to lie in it.

i want to say that i am not condoning the practice of bottling one own feelings. rather, i am admonishing that we carefully consider our words and the consequences that speaking them will incur before we open the floodgates and let the tongue spew...

one last thing, please, take every opportunity to speak blessings and encouragement into one another's lives. when you are feeling weak and desperate, speak strength and hope!  the words you speak will influence and multiply! they will positively influence your environment. in turn, this newly influenced environment will produce, in you, new feelings. feelings that are ultimately the fruit of the words that you have sown into the lives of others.

cast your bread upon the waters,

for after many days you will find it again

ecclesiastes 11:1 (niv)

oh boy did i just blabber a lot! :)

i hope you find this useful in your life. keep in mind that this is a work of progress, not perfection! as long as we are mortal, we will make mistakes.

blessings!

---j

“sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can hurt like hell.”

~chuck palahniuk