“Be careful with your words. Once they are said, they can be only forgiven, not forgotten.”
Unknown
How many words do you speak each day?
Ten thousand? Twenty? Thirty?
A quick Google search puts the average across both sexes at between fifteen and sixteen thousand words per day.
If you accept these numbers, that means we speak close to 500,000 words a month and nearly 6,000,000 words a year.
That’s a lot of words.
Most of us speak those words mindlessly, carelessly, even recklessly. We scarcely understand that our words have consequences. Our words can build others up or break them down. But even more significantly, your words build the world you inhabit. They create your reality.
Ways we misuse words
It’s remarkable how the collection and organization of sounds and silences create the thing we call language. Not only that, we have thousands of languages across the globe, each with their own collections and rules for organizing. If that wasn’t remarkable enough, we also have written representation of the sounds we speak.
But we take this marvel of technology for granted. We are able to invoke deep emotions and meaning in ourselves and others from sounds that are essentially emotionless and meaningless.
Words built great nations and movements. Words start wars. Words end wars. Words wound. Words comfort. Words heal.
The power of words depends on the person speaking them. The words of someone you know, like, and trust will far outweigh the words of a stranger. However, the words you speak have the greatest impact on you.
When we discount the power of our words, we are prone to misuse them to our own detriment, even when it appears we’re using them to bring down others.
In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz lays out four principles for living with greater peace and happiness. The first, and most important, principle he describes is to be impeccable with your word. He writes:
Being impeccable with your word is not using the word against yourself. If I see you in the street and I call you stupid, it appears that I’m using the word against you. But really I’m using my word against myself, because you’re going to hate me for this, and your hating me is not good for me. Therefore, if I get angry and with my word send all that emotional poison to you, I’m using the word against myself.
So many of us misuse the creative power of the word when we gossip, when we engage in needless arguments, when we engage in constant self-deprecation. We can even corrupt harmless words with our tone of voice.
What if instead of taking your words for granted, you see them as works of art?
Everyone is an artist
In his book Anam Cara, John O’Donohue suggests that our ability to produce words is akin to an artist’s ability to produce a work of art seemingly out of nothing. He writes:
“The uttering of the word reveals how each of us relentlessly creates. Everyone is an artist, Each person brings sound out of silence and coaxes the invisible to become visible.”
Have you ever thought of your words as works of art? How might you be more aware, more careful with your speech of you thought of it as creating permanent works of art. Would you like what you create? Would your art draw others in or repel them?
Are you creating breathtaking landscapes for yourself and others or are you creating landscapes of desolation?
Ruiz goes further by stating that the creative power of your word flows directly from the creative power of God:
Your word is the power that you have to create. Your word is the gift that comes directly from God. The Gospel of John in the Bible, speaking of the creation of the universe, says, “In the
beginning there was the word, and the word was with God, and the word is God.” Through the word you express your creative power. It is through the word that you manifest everything. Regardless of what language you speak, your intent manifests through the word. What you dream, what you feel, and what you really are, will all be manifested through the word.
What are you creating with your 6,000,000 words per year?
You are creator of the universe
You are creator of your universe. You are creator of the universe.
When you understand the awesome power of your word, you will be less quick to speak. You will become more careful, more measured, understand that every single utterance is a creation
May you create a universe of love, of beauty, of peace, of tenderness, and of kindness.
Thank you, Cylon.
I guess speaking is one of the many gifts we take for granted, and then abuse by neglect or by weaponizing. As you so rightly say, using insulting language is an abuse upon ourselves as well as others.
A touch of awareness seldom goes amiss when communicating with others. As with all things, so much good can be done with just a little thought and practice which is usually a better use of our faculties than being ego-centric and unkind.
Cheers.
“A touch of awareness seldom goes amiss when communicating with others.” – love this. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Your statement that words are works of art resonates with me. I do craft what write as carefully as say, Monet (I can spell his name!). And, I tend to be extremely careful with my written words because they can be seen, thus lasting, and telling! Because nobody can see what I say, I tend to be careless, thinking my words cannot condemn me, nor last forever. Yet, your blog brought to mind a number of things that I was told in my youth, that, let’s say, have not yet been forgotten. Thank you for opening my consciousness to the fact that the spoken word is not a frivolous thing, and likely even more powerful than the written word, in their lasting impact. God forgive me my careless speech…
Amen.