If you know me, then you know that I’m never at a loss for words. Until now! This could be a three-sentence post!
You know as well as I do that I will go beyond three sentences. So what do I want to share with you today, my friends. I guess I want to contemplate the hard words, the hardest words. Let me offer a few.
I’m sorry. I apologize. It was my fault. Why did you do that? Get out of my sight. You are wrong! You are insane! You are nothing!
I suppose it all boils down to the hardest, most hurtful, words: You are nothing! Sometimes the world gives us that message. Sometimes we get that message from those we hate. Sometimes our heart breaks because the person who says, “You are nothing” is the person we most most. It is a beating down, in a way. It is using words to disrespect and devalue a person until what they believe about themselves becomes a serious emotional place to be. “Forced to the ground” is one way to describe it.
I have been there once or twice. You probably have been there too. Using words is one of the most powerful ways to force a person onto the ground and face first in the mud. It holds its own violence and control over another person.
The deepest, most devastating, violence for me has been a constant barrage of words that were meant to rob me of my very self, inside and out.
So words can be lethal. They can hurt and they can push me to the ground, so that I would feel lower and lower. I know how difficult it is to get up to your knees and then stand. I always remember this wise little saying, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me!”
Remembering the sting of the sharp pebbles under my knees, I push on up feeling the strain of the muscles in my thighs. Pushing harder and harder, and demanding my knees to straighten up, I rise to my feet!
One last word of encouragement …
“Stand tall, laugh loudly, and be who you truly are.” — Sark
