responsibility

Perception – Day 658

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Karl’s Magic Ball – Photo: L. Weikel

Perception

After one of my posts last week, a number of people suggested that I take a ‘news fast’ or otherwise not pay attention to what’s going on in the world, and in particular our country, at the moment. There are a number of rabbit holes I could go down in response. But for now, I want to focus on choosing a card for all of us to contemplate as we enter the first week ‘post-convention.’ Knowing things will only escalate exponentially (why would things change now?) as we start the final countdown to the election, I asked for a guiding concept for us to focus upon this week. The card I chose: Perception.

I’ve chosen and posted cards from this deck before. It’s the Mystic Art Medicine Oracle Cards/Tools for Transformation deck by Cher Lyn.

The imagery on this card feels particularly appropriate for the times we’re experiencing, especially the inclusion of the White Buffalo, which has been a fundamental aspect of prophecy for native North Americans for millennia. I hope you’ll take a moment to really zoom in on the details of Cher Lyn’s artwork and allow it to speak to you.

Here are the words she shared with this card:

Perception – “Blue Star Pe’Tanka”

The Star people watch, a new cycle birth

White Buffalo appears …good ways return to Earth.

Anticipate this Creation, it’s shifting,

All illusions, the veil is thinning and lifting.    

– Cher Lyn

“In the painting “Blue Star Pe’Tanka,” you see the spirit of a White Buffalo in gestation readying to birth abundance into the new world. She floats in the cosmos of non-linear time and space. The white owl flies in and brushes her wing through the symbol of creation to spin the wheel round again in a forward motion. The void is the cosmic eye of the buffalo, a portal into other worlds of untapped potential and adventure.

All humans see differently. You see one thing and someone right next to you can see something completely different. Everyone sees through his or her own eyes their own personal movie. See the diamond facet of yourself that is clear vision. It is here you find the Perception of the Divine…all of us has it. Sometimes it’s just covered up with dust, or emotional misinformation, attachments, or unconscious motives.

An ordinary mirror simply reflects back what it has been shown, but the mirror to your soul has a far more transformative multifaceted viewpoint with infinite potential. As you continue to heal, forgive, accept and love yourself you gain wisdom and can release the “you, who is not you.” You break through the conditionings and the dust of your illusions.

The appearances and experiences in your world are your personal mirrors of your creation. Every simple thought you have, every moment of appreciation or angry projected expression, every breath you take or scream you make, any kindness you give, and every moment of joy alters the world in some way and creates a future scene in the movie of your life.

With the Perception medicine card comes informational codes, which provide opportunity for clear vision. In your meditation allow for the intelligence of this concept, clear Perception, to reflect onto all the facets in the diamond of your life lens, projecting conscious truth and light into your personal movie called life.”

My Take

The sense I get from this card is that it would be fruitful for us to reflect upon what might be coloring our perceptions of the events that unfold this week. How might our past experiences be shading or influencing how we process the information we’re hearing and seeing projected to us now.

Is there a way for each of us – in any given moment – to consciously rise above the emotional charge of whatever it is we’re being told or shown and See things from a higher perspective? Perhaps now more than ever we’re being called to be vigilant over the use of our creative abilities: the immense power that is inherent in our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Ultimately, we’re all living in our own unique bubbles of perception. But we are also combining our perceptions to create our shared reality. First and foremost, each of us must take responsibility for our own unique thoughts, words, actions and, perhaps even more importantly, our choices of how we want to perceive the world.

Things are gestating. Change is coming. In the midst of the chaos maybe we can “mind our perception” and each do our best to perceive within the chaos the seeds of a new world that’s just, compassionate, and based on love and mutual respect.

It behooves us to pay attention to our perception.

(T-453)

Peace – Day 582

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Peace – Mystic Art Medicine Cards by Cher Lyn

Peace

This evening, I got out the set of oracle cards I wrote about some time ago, Mystic Art Medicine Oracle Cards, by Cher Lyn. I asked for a message or a concept that we would benefit from contemplating and reflecting upon this week, as we approach the solstice and solar eclipse. The card that presented itself for us is Peace.

We all have our ideas of what “Peace” means. The obviousness of how beneficial it could be for all of us to be holding this concept in our minds this week is inescapable. But I want to share with you the uncanny words that the author wrote to accompany this card. Her words are, in my opinion, even more essential to contemplate than the image.

Peace – “Mother Mary”

(…)

In the aftermath of a war zone, its devastating effect brings to mind one question: What could have been so important to cause such violence and bloodshed? Everyone’s soul wants Peace, everyone wants love; so what’s the problem? The minds of our civilized culture are programmed with dysfunctional information. Beginning at birth you undergo cultural programming, indoctrination and subtle brainwashing. Your mind has been the domain of your parents, teachers, and preachers; you’ve given rights over to psychics, authors, and television politicians to mention a few. In other words, you’ve allowed others to think for you, without thinking.

Be cognizant, protesting for Peace while unleashing force will most likely create more anger, more war. Everyone around you has emotional wounds. You can’t fix anyone else. Your responsibility and power is within to change ‘you’ and only you. Transform that which is in you. Release attempts to solve, as judge and jury, the anger of the world. The only functioning place to truly propagate Peace is within your conscious mind and open heart.

(…)

The beloved Mother Mary is here, full of compassion and understanding. Whatever it is you are seeking, for all that you need ask the Mother. Allow inner Peace and receive.”

Worthy Goal

Given everything we are witnessing at the moment, I was moved by not only the serenity of the image but especially the uncanny applicability of Cher Lyn’s words at this specific time in our lives – and the life of our nation.

No matter what else we do this week, it feels wise and worthy to contemplate our own inner transformation – to allow inner Peace and receive.

(T-529)

Wishes – Day 331

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Milkweed pods – Photo: L. Weikel

Wishes   

A favorite memory of mine from my childhood is catching a floating milkweed seed, cupping it in my little girl hands, making a wish – and then **POOF** – blowing it into the breeze.

I would make a point of watching to make sure the seed floated away, which was not always a given. At least half the time, my hands would’ve squished the fluffy part attached to the seed, and maybe even dampened and matted it a bit, making it harder for it to stay aloft.

I always took those wishes very seriously. Just like the wishes made on the candles of one’s birthday cake. This was not stuff to be trifled with – I was never one to squander a wish on something simple like extra cookies for dessert or something. No.

Responsibility

I’m sort of surprised at how genuinely seriously I took the wish-making responsibility. I wonder where that sense of being aware of the consequences of what I asked for came from.

It was probably my next older sister, Edith, who schooled me in the gravity of wish-making. Or rather, the gravity of screwing things up if I wasted my wish or wished for something less than high-minded. There always seemed to be a cautionary tale emanating from her side of the room, reminding me of how everything could easily go south if I wasn’t careful.

Present Wishes

I’m grateful that I was schooled so early in being aware of what I ‘put out’ into the Universe. Certainly, she didn’t express it in those terms, but that’s what it was. And it quite obviously had an impact on me. I’ve been known to just blow milkweeds past because I don’t want to stand there trying to figure out what to wish.

I’ve also been accused of letting the candles burn down too far on my birthday cake as I hemmed and hawed on what to wish for before I blew them out.

The milkweed pods we found the other day, pictured above, remained untouched. I know I thought about Monarch butterflies when I took the photo. And that made me think of Mother Nature in a grander sense.

I know I’m wishing every day – with our without a milkweed seeds in my hands – that somehow we will all start looking around and realizing just how precious Nature and Mother Earth are. I wish everything didn’t end up having to be couched in selfishness and self-interest, as in the way most wishes go: ‘I hope we humans can start to appreciate nature because we can’t live without it.’

I wish for once we could wish for the preservation of nature and all that surrounds us simply because it is beautiful. Simply because it (whatever it is) is unique and precious and amazing in its own right.

Sand from Lake Winnebigoshish, Minnesota
Magnified 100x

Almost every single thing we look at – if we look at it closely enough – is exquisitely beautiful. From sand to grass to the molecules of steel. It makes me sad sometimes that we lose sight of so much that’s truly important by getting distracted or being selfish or acting unconsciously.

Veering Off

I could take a hard turn right now and speak of wishing that people in power would stop for one moment in their self-centered machinations and realize the terrible destruction their impulsive decisions (wishes for more power? More money? More adulation?) may be raining down upon people far away. Faceless, nameless people who’ve had the rug pulled out from under them just a few days ago; who didn’t see it coming, who had no inkling everything in their world was about to be destroyed.

And for what?

I guess I wish the wishes of others might be launched upon the winds with greater care, compassion, and wisdom than seems evident. I wish the wishes of others were wishes that carried hope upon the winds instead of greed.

My wish tonight is that all of us be just a little more mindful of the wishes we make.

Wishing you a peaceful head and heart – and maybe a moment in which you See something of exquisite beauty today that’s been right in front of you, every single day.

(T-780)

Stand For Our Mother – Day 312

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Stand For Our Mother

Tonight’s post will be short and sweet.

Amidst all the insanity, all of the human angst and suffering, the cruelty we inflict upon each other, and the struggles each of us engage in on a daily basis, sometimes just to keep our shit together enough to make it through one more day, there is one unequivocal, undeniable constant.

No matter who we are, no matter where we live, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in on any given day, in any given country, there remains one aspect of this life that we all share: Mother Earth.

Being a Mother

The parallels are there. They’re undeniable. We call this planet upon which we live our lives Mother  Earth for a reason. Just as there’s a reason that we never call this planet Father  Earth.

This observation is not in any way a knock on fathers. Not at all. It is, rather, an acknowledgment of the obvious.

Mother Earth feeds  every thing and every being who lives upon her from her body . In one form or another, we all continue to seek and receive nourishment from the body of our mother, the planet Earth, every single day.

In order to keep us safe, she grows on her ‘skin,’ so to speak, materials that we need and use to build shelters that protect us from the elements.

In order to keep us healthy, she provides the perfect environment for plants to thrive and grow. These plants not only feed us, but also make medicines and other remedies that serve us, heal us, and help us maintain our balance, inside and out.

In order to keep us happy and entertained, warm in the winter and cold in the summer, in order to keep us with gold and silver on our fingers, clothes on our backs, and modes of transportation that take us across town or to the other side of “her,” our planet gives to us of herself.

Everything we use to sustain life here on this planet is created out of or provided directly by Mother Earth.

Taking Responsibility

For the longest time, she has indulged us – as a mother who cherishes her child might, and often does – even though she knows, deep down, that every child eventually needs to grow up and face the consequences of its choices.

Our actions, from what we do when we wake up each day, the food we eat, the cars we drive, the lights we use, to the faucet we turn off, have consequences. And if we don’t start paying attention and noticing the consequences of our actions, it’s akin to jamming a fork into our mother’s eye.

How can we expect her to keep taking care of us if all we do is take, take, take? She needs to recuperate. She needs time to replenish herself and her stores so she can share her bounty with us for years and hopefully millennia to come.

Climate Strike

My whole point is that we need to start standing up for our mother. We need to treat her with the respect and love and appreciation that she deserves. And in order to motivate others to join us in a mutual effort to work together to bring healing to her and, indeed, all of us, we need to take a stand.

If you’ve only been lending half an ear to the latest efforts to bring awareness to climate change, then you may not be fully aware that the youth of the world are asking that we all pay attention and stand up for Mother Earth tomorrow.

We’re being asked to walk out – go on strike – stop working for a time (whether it’s at school or at work or anywhere in between) in order to bring the world to a halt!

Join Me – Join Us – Join Our Youth

Here are a few links to some articles and resources that can explain who, what, when, where, and why.

But the important thing is taking a STAND. Show up. Take responsibility. Don’t be afraid to ‘come out’ as a science believer and a Mother Earth LOVER.

She’s loved us all this time. Let’s love her back – now – when she needs her children to grow the hell up already and stop poisoning her just because we can.

(T-799)

Long Way Home – Day 190

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Image: www.northloop.org

Long Way Home      

As I was driving back from Amadell today, I was reminded of the Supertramp song of the same title as this blog.

It was indeed a long way home, but so worth it.

The journey was made even better by the exquisite weather we enjoyed the entire way home. The Appalachians were our constant companions and, to be honest, they beckoned to us to stop and explore them one day more.

Responsibility Calls

But alas, responsibility calls and we needed to get home.

Democracy in action called to us with an even louder voice than the two songs I offered you above.

Please get out and vote.

Take a look around and summon the courage to see what’s actually unfolding in our communities, states, and country. Obviously, I’m speaking directly to Pennsylvanians because tomorrow is our primary.

But it does not matter where you live. When your state has its primary and general elections: VOTE. Vote for your school board directors, vote for your supervisors, vote for you Register of Wills. VOTE.

Your rights, your voice, your power to maintain control over your own life depend on you exercising your RIGHT and PRIVILEGE to vote. Don’t squander your power by waiting until it’s too late and your rights have been lost.

(T-921)

Couple More Thoughts on the News -Day 128

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A Couple More Thoughts on the News

I’m not sure if I’ve seen yet all the comments (public and private) my post yesterday spurred. That’s because I only had a few minutes this morning to even check things out on my phone.

Amazingly, I’m only just now getting online with my laptop and it’s almost midnight.

I may have given the wrong impression last night. It crossed my mind as I was writing it, but I chose not to go into more detail at the time. I’m not sure, but it may have been a sad attempt at avoiding controversy, which is kind of dumb – especially since the actual name of my blog is Ruffled Feathers.

My News History

So let me just set the record straight:

First and probably foremost, I believe the last time I watched good ol’, actual ‘old-style’ network news was during 9/11 and a few days in its aftermath. And that was only to glean as much information as I could from a comforting, what I perceived then to be a reliable source in that moment.

Prior to and post 9/11, as my boys were growing up, we watched ‘the news’ pretty much never. This was vastly different than watching tv while I was growing up, with the John Facendas of local news at 6:00 p.m. and either Huntley and Brinkley or, of course, Walter Cronkite at 7:00 p.m., as dependable as clockwork against the backdrop of my parents and their obligatory after-work cocktail with crackers and cheese.

Ugh, I remember wishing my father would come home late and not kick me off the tv. I always had to turn Star Trek off and it was such a bummer. Of course, that was back in the day when all the good stuff I wanted to watch was on the ‘UHF’ channels of 17, 29, and 48. These three much more static-y and hard to tune in just right channels featured much more of the stuff I wanted to watch than the standard channels of 3, 6, and 10. If I’m not mistaken, channel 48 had Roller Derby. And Ultra Man.

But when Daddy got home, the television became his domain. So news it was.

Post-Marriage News Habits

On the other hand, when our guys were growing up, I do not remember watching news. In fact, I don’t remember watching much tv at all. Most of the programs I remember from their growing up years were cartoons like Power Rangers, He-Man, and Ren & Stimpy.  (Yes, Ren & Stimpy. I’ve always shared a gross and some might say vulgar sense of humor with my sons.)

We also watched some of the classic night time tv shows ‘of the day,’ like Cheers and Roseanne and Murphy Brown. I remember watching the very first episode of the Simpsons, too. Hard to believe that’s still cranking out new episodes. The damn series outlived my son. Doesn’t seem right.

Another favorite to watch with my kids was Pee-Wee’s Playhouse on Saturday mornings. By the time my youngest son came along, we actually owned a VCR. So we ended up watching more movies than ever. Lion King and Toy Story were two of the best, with the dialogue-less The Snowman being one that always made me choke up.

All this to say: news via television was not a staple in our home. We did read the local newspaper and magazines.

My Current Sense of Responsibility

So when I say I feel a sense of responsibility to watch the news, I should clarify that I pretty much mean what’s going on politically. And to put a further point on that, I do feel it is my responsibility to watch some of this so that I am a well-informed voter. And to that end, since I am basically engaging in a form of tele-viewing confession, I like watching Rachel Maddow, because she goes into such depth in her stories. She puts current events into historical context in ways no other shows of that nature do. I have learned a ton of history by watching her program.

The slippery slope for me is watching the shows either before or after hers. It can get addictive. And it can become enraging or upsetting or a whole smörgåsbord of adrenalin-or-despair inducing emotions. As in everything, therefore, moderation is the key.

I whole-heartedly endorse a strict abstention from 99% of local news (not counting what you might read in print or may hear on the radio). And I feel NPR is a wonderful resource; I’m just not in my car all that often anymore, now that I no longer have a long daily commute.

While I try to limit my consumption of articles on the internet, I do confess to having subscriptions to the New York Times and a couple other publications. I try to be well-rounded (and open-minded), and even more importantly, careful not to read or pass along garbage.

The bottom line, however, is that I do feel a responsibility to remain aware and informed. NOT inflamed. And NOT propagandized (which is tough in this climate).

But every once in a while, it is a delight to completely and totally ignore what’s going on in Washington D.C., or Harrisburg, or around the world. Especially since there is a lot happening that weighs heavily on all of us. At least those of us who are paying attention.

Which I have a sneaking feeling includes most of you.

(T-983)

Responsibility – Day 127

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March Sunset – Photo: L. Weikel

Responsibility         

I have a confession to make. I feel as though I’ve shirked a responsibility that I take quite seriously. And yet, the act itself harkens back to a different time in our my life.

Tonight, Karl and I chose to refrain from watching any news on television.

Perhaps that sounds weird. I suppose it’s possible for people to be living life without paying much attention to what’s happening on the national and international stage. But for me? That feels irresponsible.

Actually, I’m feeling a swing of reactions, from a calm sense of relief that I’m not immersed in the world of politics and upsetting news of violence and hate crimes that seem more apropos of Escape from LA than it should be to live in the world in March 2019, to a foreboding sense of moral responsibility.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this before. It may have been another evening when I allowed myself to indulge in the sweetness of silence by turning off our television. Yes indeed, I’m pretty sure I even called my post Evening Silence.

Not One Minute Today

Tonight is a little different than that night. In fact, while I haven’t kept meticulous track of my viewing habits, I bet this is the first weeknight I’ve not watched even one minute of news since I began my 1111 Devotion back in November. Wait. That might not be precisely true. The holidays of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and possibly Thanksgiving, I think I may have abstained as well. But holidays are like weekends: major world or life events that demand our attention just aren’t supposed to happen on those days.

Of course, we all know that’s not true; it’s not reality. But we pretend it is.

As a result, as a direct consequence of that pretending, I rarely think twice about what’s going on “out there” on weekends and holidays.

But wow. Today is a regular workday. It is a day that falls on the heels of some wretched events that simply make me want to weep. We are being forced to contemplate the nth degree of cruelty that humans inflict upon each other. And it’s happening over and over again, seemingly day after day. And it hurts.

Have I Hit My Saturation Point?

I’m a bit concerned that I’m reaching my saturation point. That concerns me, because it feels like succumbing to that sense of precipitous overload is playing directly into a nefarious agenda. An agenda being set by those who would have us live lives based in fear rather than on love and compassion.

It will be interesting to see how Karl and I choose to spend our evening tomorrow. Will we make it two weeknights in a row without watching the news? I doubt it.

I guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, I feel my responsibility in this moment is to not watch the news. Rather, it is to do whatever I need to do to keep the faith. To hold the center for anyone or anything I can, in order to help us all survive this onslaught of division, fear, and yes – terror.

Holding Our Center – In Grief – With Ritual and Respect

To that end, in case you haven’t seen this gut-wrenching and culturally unique (but pan-cultural in its impact upon us when we witness it) tribute to the grief being felt in New Zealand, I am offering it here.

I dare you to watch this young man and not be moved. I challenge you to witness these students performing this ancient ritual and not sense our common knowing, deep within our bones, that what is happening to one country or culture is happening to us all.

It is our responsibility to feel the tears of our souls, even if they express themselves as a lump in our throat or a clenching in our stomach. No matter how the tears show up for you, feel them. It is our responsibility – to ourselves and to each other.

(T-984)

The Power of Words 2- Day Seventy Two

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The Power of Words 2

I thought I had nothing to say last night, but I’m glad something seemed to bubble up to the surface.

I decided to write about the power of words because I’d recently noticed a number of friends and clients repeatedly using some pretty awful-sounding expressions. Most of these expressions are used so routinely in our everyday speech that I’m pretty sure we barely even register them. Indeed, most of us don’t actually ‘hear’ them – even when we’re the ones uttering them.

Worst is the Stuff We Don’t Even Hear

In many ways, that’s an even more insidious state of affairs than when we actively embrace what some might consider ‘hate speech’ or language that is clearly meant to inflict pain of some kind. That’s because the literal meaning of the common expressions we use so often slips right into our subconscious without a blip on our screen.

Interestingly, too, most of these insidiously harmful statements are directed at ourselves. We most often are using the expressions to describe how we feel using hyperbole: obviously, we know when we’re experiencing even the extremely dire circumstances in a business deal – we’re not literally ‘dying,’ or ‘getting killed.’

But if we subscribe to the power (even if small) of affirmations to potentially shift our reality and bring our desires toward us, then surely we must consider what saying, “That’s killing me; that’s killing me; that’s killing me,” over and over to ourselves might have on our health and well being.

When we commit to paying attention to what we speak out loud, we obviously must start by paying attention to our thoughts and to what we’re thinking before we speak. That can lead to some distressing realizations, believe me. Even if we tend to think of ourselves as pretty optimistic, kind, and thoughtful people (to others), we can be in for a rude (and sometimes horrifying) awakening when we realize we rarely extend those courtesies to ourselves, or worse, actually brutalize ourselves internally.

Cancel That!

One technique I was taught a long time ago, to enhance our awareness of what we’re speaking and thereby manifesting, has to do with the Akashic Records. You may recall that the Akashic Records is a vast library of sorts that contains our every thought, word, and deed. Well, I was taught (by my very experienced teacher who specialized in reading the Akashic Records) that the record is not ‘made permanent’ for, I believe, 7-8 seconds. Thus, if we do not want to add weight to a hastily spoken expression, we need to ‘cancel’ it.

Not only does canceling the expression of the objectionable words or sentiment keep it from being made permanent, it also, ideally, makes us more personally aware of our own thoughts and what we’re allowing to come out of our mouths. If we’re vigilant, it can cause us to pay attention and self-correct.

Yes, We Can Harm Others, Too

Another consequence of the misuse of the power of words is something we may or may not be aware of or intend to have happen – causing harm to others. And that’s where my work can get a little edgy for some people.

I’ve removed a number of energetic manifestations of words and intentions from clients’ bodies over the years. Usually they were hurled at a client in fits of rage or fear or loathing. They are almost always literal representations of the thought form that was being projected toward my client.

I’m sure you can guess some of the things I’ve removed: knives and other sharp objects being common manifestations. People ‘stab’ others in the back a lot. And if they do it often enough, or with particular vehemence, it can start to solidify, in a sense, in the luminous energy field surrounding the recipient’s body. If the onslaught persists over time, it can actually create physical symptoms and even take on a physical form.

As a small aside, it is fascinating sometimes to see the creativity with which some people hurl stuff at others.

Self-inflicted Wounds of Another Kind

Oh – and another thing we’re very capable of is manifesting these sorts of things on ourselves. What I mean by that is if we think and feel we’re being stabbed in the back, for instance, the manifestation that I might See and remove may actually have been manifested by you and your persistent thoughts of being the victim of such an onslaught.

My point is that we have a lot more power available to us than most of us realize. And it’s time that we started taking responsibility for that power by cleaning up how we think and speak to and about both ourselves and each other.

Obviously, the final and most powerful manifestation is ‘doing the deed.’ That’s much more easy to control (presumably) (hopefully!), since we can get in serious trouble if we go about literally stabbing people in the back, etc. I’m not even going to waste my breath on that.

The cool thing is, once you start paying attention to your thoughts and words, the easier it becomes to choose more consciously and wisely. It becomes second nature. That’s not to say that lapses don’t occur. But overall? The cumulative effect of taking active responsibility for keeping our thoughts, words, and deeds ‘clean’ and on the up-and-up is better health, a lighter step, a quicker smile, and far fewer experiences of feeling aggrieved.

(T-1039)

Words Have Power – Day Seventy One

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Words Have Power

This is going to be a quick post. I don’t know if it’s the frigid weather (we actually have ice forming on the inside of some of our windows) (yea for old houses?) or what, but I am much more tired than usual.

I had a conversation today that highlighted a habit so many of us indulge in without even realizing it: using words in our routine conversations, often completely unaware of what we are “putting out into the Universe,” that can end up having unintended consequences.

I’m surprised I haven’t written about this before. I suppose it’s possible I have, and I’ve just forgotten. But I don’t think that’s the case.

The “Background” Noise We Make All the Time

Anyway, I know this is something that I will write about again and again because it is critically important for all of us to be aware of not only the specific obvious things that we say, but also the background noise that we utter.

For instance, I’ve seen many instances in which someone makes a comment such as, “I’m pissed,” or “I’m pissed off,” when describing how they feel about a situation or person they’re dealing with. Now, obviously, if this is a random statement, it’s rare that anything will come of it. But I have noticed both in observing other people and, sadly, in my own experience, that if you say such a thing (or a close facsimile) often enough, it is not a big surprise when a urinary tract infection or some type of similar physical issue pops up.

I’ve noticed a similar long-term-use effect in the oft-used phrase “such and such is a pain in the ass.” I guarantee you would be astonished by how many people end up experiencing some form of a literal “pain in the ass” when this type of a phrase is used often enough. From hemorrhoids to sciatica, I’ve seen it manifest.

I know. I realize this may sound like some really dumb, anecdotal stuff. And it is anecdotal. I’m not sure how one would go about proving this correlation scientifically. But you know what? Anecdotal evidence is good enough for me to watch what I put out into the world.

The Energy of Thought, Word, and Deed

I first learned about the importance of taking responsibility for the words we utter when I was first being schooled in the energy associated with thoughts, words, and (obviously) deeds. There is an order of magnitude associated with the power our words have on us and our environment. When those words exist in our thoughts alone, they most definitely have power. But once spoken, they have an even greater impact. And it is obvious, of course, that deeds, putting our thoughts and words into action, often have the most profound and most rapid impact.

The error is in thinking that only our deeds have the power to impact our minds, bodies, or circumstances.

The couple of examples I’ve used above are a drop in the bucket of the myriad ways in which I hear people using words (almost always unconsciously) that feels, to me, like they’re playing with fire and laying the groundwork for some serious ramifications. And it isn’t even that they’ll always manifest it in themselves. But speaking it out loud will almost always end up bringing some form of it into your life in some way.

It’s the Everyday Conversations

Which is why we need to take responsibility for the words we choose to use, not only when we’re speaking in front of a crowd or writing something for publication. Indeed, we are often more careful about the words we use in those settings. It’s the every day conversations that have the greatest effect, as these are the conversations we have over and over and over. And these are the situations in which we are most likely to find ourselves using phrases or expressions that we do not intend literally, but, said over and over and over again (unconsciously) can result in an unintended cumulative effect of manifesting in some way in our life.

Indeed, even more insidious than the words we use in our everyday conversations are the words we use when we speak to ourselves. Those repeated thoughts, judgments, and phrases that are only heard between our own ears.

Our bodies are listening. Our minds are listening. Our souls are listening.

Truth be told, I’m only speaking of the effect we might have on ourselves by the words we use in our everyday conversations.

Sticks and Stones?

As hard as it may be to believe, the old adage we were taught as kids, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me,” is definitely not as iron-clad a truism as we might like to think. And again: I’m not even talking about the damage I’ve seen inflicted by others on others.

I’ve been hearing a lot of really dicey use of words and phrases lately by a number of people I care about. I do not want them manifesting the flippant or unconscious comments they make in describing how they feel about what’s going on in their lives.

While I know I sound like a broken record, I’m just trying to call attention to the words we use. Please, pay attention. Try your best to be vigilant and refrain from using phrases such as, “That gave me a heart attack;” “I nearly had a stroke;” “He’s a pain in the ass;” “It’s killing me;” “I feel crazy;” etc., etc.

Listen to yourself. Realize that you are creating with your words, so choose wisely.

Go forth and have a great day.

(T-1040)