Never Get It Back!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Date shown above reflects date last worked and saved to Draft Folder.

The entry was published on Feb. 6, 2008

There's a writing prompt on my Soul Echoes blog; an embedded Writing Tip of the Day, script. Back in May, 2007 [around the time my pc monitor gave up its ghost], the following was offered:

Write with wisdom and careful thought, because in publishing, haste often makes waste.

I felt it important to get back to this post [It's been sitting in the Draft folder--waiting everso patiently--for my return.], because it reminded me of the man I'd met several years back and quoted in my first attempt at writing commentary: That Which We Call Earth

Arvol Looking Horse is Chief and 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Pipe of the Lakota, Dakota & Nakota Sioux Nation. I saw him straightaway as a quiet and peaceable man; one who gives considerable thought before he speaks. I also knew, as he chose his words, he knows a great deal more than he will ever immediately share.

He opened his speech by sharing the reason behind his careful consideration of the words he choses; before he speaks them. His mother taught him that once a thing is said, once a thought is put out there, you can never get it back.
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Many of us grew up with the axiom, 'think before you speak.' When I hear that, my mind goes straight to an episode of Friends when Rachel baby-sits and loses Ross's monkey, Marcel. It's the one where Phoebe takes a dart for the cause. There's a scene with the Animal Control Officer, where Rachel and Ross try to pretend the call they made was a big mistake.

The officer buys it until Monica and Phoebe rush in the apartment and Phoebe mentions something about Marcel. Monica [obviously aware they'd just blown it] asks, "Pheebs? You know how we talked about saying things quietly to yourself first?" I just about died laughing when Phoebe responded with, "Yes, but there's not always time."

Well, all things considered [and imaginary friends aside] we have to make that kind of time. Why? Because we brandish them to easily. And give little to no thought to the consequences wrought.

There's an old childhood axiom about 'sticks and stones and broken bones, ... and those words can never harm us...,' well, they do harm. Words can leave wounds so deep that if left untended, they may never heal. And too often never do.

I found this prompt to be also quite timely since my focus these days is on concerns of the earth. I'm reminded and find great truth to a First Nations axiom, Mitakuye Oyasin, which in Lakota means, All My Relations or We Are All Related. It speaks to an inter-connectedness with all living things, whether two-legged, four-legged, winged, or crawlers; whether mineral, organic, of the rocks or the trees.

I asksed the profound question, recently: What is Life? [Pearls of Wisdom, see, Pearls of Life] Simple words. And a seemingly simple question derived from a point I wanted to make--"Were we all to consider our Earth a living breathing entity"--meant to stir how we all might better handle what threatens us today.

As mentioned above, my commentary posed the following: if we thought of Earth as nothing less than sacred, "might we be quicker to consider a proper cure?" I must have chosen the wrong words. Because no one ever responded. [Okay, Myrna did. But only because I pleaded for her time.]

I believe we are connected to the world that sustanes us in a way we have simply forgotten. And all we need do, is take some time and breathe in, breathe out, live in the moment and know what's true. That means taking much valued time to pay attention to the words that also connect us.

I believe what is, simply is. Knowledge is knowledge and has nothing to do so much with Good or Evil; Divine or Forbidden. But, -- just because we know a thing, doesn't mean we need do a thing [Think Jurrasic Park], or say a thing. Words are too often used to hurt.

It's what we do with what we know that others perceive as being right or wrong. And it's wrong when what we should know, we don't know; when what we do know, is but half a truth. When words are stratigically missing or unwisely said, they do nothing more than divide and keep us conquered. Words manipulate thoughts and bring about action. It's how we use the words we speak, whether to influence or persuade, that once put out into the world, we can never get them back.

I believe we are all as one. But, if we continue to let words and the fear they can manifest divide us, ill-spoken words meant to keep us at bay, then nothing will ever change. And we'll have only ourselves to blame.

Many Blessings, L.L.

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