WORDS

We encounter each other in words, words

spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,

words to consider, reconsider.

- Elizabeth Alexander, Praise Song for the Day, (a poem for the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, January 20, 2009)

Words are powerful.
Words can bring good news. Words can devastate good moods.
Words can fire up passions. Words can dampen hearts.
Words give life.
Words kill.
Words build up bridges and loves.
Words effectively annihilate them.
Words elicit compassion.
Words excrete disgust.
Words hurt.
Words heal.
Words transform, they too can retard.
Words validate friendships.
Words end some.
Words transgress.
Words forgive.
Words can spark a new beginning.
Words restore peace.

Words are powerful.
We are guardians of words.
We are stewards of words.
We are responsible for the words that we mouth.
We are accountable for the words that we hit or caress the other with.
We are just as good as our words.
We can be loved and trusted and treasured when we become what our words say.
We we will be left in the cold and darkness when we are not what our words say.
Words can be meaningful.
Words can also be worthless.

Only when we and our words become one and the same thing,
can we transform and be transformed,
build and be built,
trust and be trusted,
respect and be respected,
love and be loved.