I almost saw the wind today. The wind… it howled, actually howled through the pine trees I sat under. As I looked up, I saw the sun reflect off of the long, thin needles as they swayed gracefully. It was as if it had fingers, gentle, long fingers that were brushing over the bows and making them bounce and dance.
The wind. What a strange and magnificent thing. It blows. It winds its way through the smallest cracks and gusts through huge forests till it dissipates into nothing. It starts somewhere and ends nowhere. It wanders like a lost soul.
It can sway a small blade of grass like a breath or can topple the strongest building.
It sometimes lingers, just barely touching your shoulder, or tickling your neck. Other times it teams up with all the other winds and forms a tunnel destroying everything in it’s path.
All this and we can’t even see it!
Powerful. It can bring refreshment or destruction.
I think words are like the wind.
They puff out in gusts, often for no reason. They twist and turn and find their way into the smallest cracks in our hearts. They are powerful. They have the power to take a life or enrich it. We can’t see them, but their affect is never forgotten.
They start deep inside us and come howling out. Where they come from sometimes seems a mystery however. They seem to spring up out of nowhere and end the same way.
Words can change the direction of someone’s life. They can bring healing to a friendship, life to a marriage.
They are power. They are life to some and death to others.
My words. I stand at the gate of my mouth. I let them blow or stop them.
May they bring life, sweet and full to those they blow on!
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes
Question: Has someone changed your life with their words?
My wife does this for me every day in various ways with her words. Like a healing balm, a verbal pat on the back, the optimistic syllables that say “You are magnificent” and the encouragement to carry on when troubles arise.
Michael,
She sounds like a gem… and a very wise lady 😉
What a gift she is giving you every day!
Wonderful analogy Claudia. Our words are very powerful and it’s up to us whether to use them to build or destroy. Both are possible. Very definitely words have changed my life at different times. I’ve had words that tore down spoken over me and it took years to overcome the effects. I am very conscious of the effect of my words – especially on my children.
Thanks Ann!
What a beautiful gift to your children…Being conscious of your words!
I don’t think we are taught how powerful they are. They are a common, everyday occurrence therefore we treat them as such. I am often guilty of this… and can find myself putting less thought into the words to those I love than what I am making for dinner!
Thank you for your encouragement here!
This concept is so simply but extremely huge! We have a choice everyday to bring life to people around us by simply saying a few kind words, making them feel heard, or validating. Yeah, there have been words said to me a long time ago that still ring in my hears…some good and some not so good. Words stick for a long time! And yes, I know who I am today partly because of these words.
Char,
They do stick! And they pop into my head at the strangest times…
I think of it so often now especially since having Jude… was kinda in my own little world for many years there 😉
Great analogy Claudia! Our words are like the wind, but we are the air bender of our words. We have the power to enrich the earth or to destroy it; but its our choice. Thanks for sharing this!
Rob,
Thank you for reading!
OOOOOHHH… nice analogy there!! The air bender of our words. I like that.