The Power of Words

  
  I"ve been thinking a bit lately about the power of words. I love words. I love how I can play with them, letting them slip off my tongue and paint a picture in the world. I love how they can weave in and out of a thought, splashing onto a page a myriad of images which, when put altogether, make up what what mankind has deemed to call poetry. I love how the beauty in words refuses to be contained, extending beyond language or time or intellect.
     I believe that everyone has words inside them, and it's part of our struggle through life to find those words, and then share them with the world. Because you see . . . words are only a beginning. The true power in words is discovered when they cease to be just words; when they leave the paper behind and leap into your heart and soul. Words can change the world. They convince, persuade, give hope, bring comfort, and inspire. One person at a time, we are changing the world around us with the words we use.
     But words are not everything. They are useless, dead, when left to sit on a shelf, beautiful but abandoned. Or worse yet, words can be used to cut down, belittle, dishonor, and destroy. Their true power is not in their nature of being words-but rather in the moment when they cease to be words . . . and become an act, a choice. Words become powerful when they get deep inside of us, and disturb our comfort zone. . . when they change who we are.
These are some words that have changed who I am:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deppest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our lgiht, not our darkness tht most frightens us. We ask ourselves: who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't help the world. There's nothing enlightening about shrinking down so someone won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in veryone and as we let our own lgiht shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

~Nelson Mandela