“The words we weave can  become a web in which we also are bound. Once uttered, these words cannot be called back; they fly out on the winds until they find their target. In a tradition that recognizes the power of words, we also maintain a watch upon our tongue, lest it speak words that we will regret.” ~The Celtic Spirit, Caitlin Matthews

When I read these words in my morning devotion today, my mother’s voice rang out loud and clear in my head.  “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!” How many times over the years did she heard me heading over a cliff from which I might not be able to return, only to caution me about the power of words?

Just this past week I was flipping from channel to channel on the television looking for something to entertain me for an hour. I was struck with the raw and angry language that was being bantered between people. I finally turned it off. The same thing can happen on the radio. I once listened faithfully to a station that mostly just made me laugh. It did not have any redeeming educational value whatsoever, but each show was filled with silliness. But over the last year, that same station, has turned some dark corner and it seems all the hosts need to lash out, take cheap jabs at people, exhibit a general mean-spiritedness. I have chosen to take them off my listening line up.

Unkind words can also be found in emails, that instant form of communication where we can rant and rave and hit send without any effort at self-censoring. It is quite common to get these forms of communications. Sometimes they are followed by an apology in which the sender recognizes that, if they had only taken the time to reflect on their words, they would have chosen their words more wisely and not have hit ‘send’ so quickly.

I am of the belief that words are so powerful they find a home in our bodies, affecting our day, our sense of self, our lives. I believe this to be true because I have had it happen to me. Words spoken unkindly, cavalierly, have nearly made me physically ill. Has this happened to you? it is difficult to bound back from, isn’t it?

What we say to another person is important, whether we are speaking about issues of ultimate concern….life, death, love, forgiveness….or the mundane…..please pass the salt….how much are these bananas?  How we choose our words just might make all the difference in the world to another person. This is something not to be taken lightly.

May we all be surrounded this day by beautiful, kind and loving words. May all the words that come out of our mouths, or through our fingers, be ones we are proud to speak into the air or have printed on paper. May all the words we weave,  spoken and received, be ones that bring the greater good to an already hurting world.