WORDS MATTER

Two people. Two soulful people. Two passionate people.

Two people who make a living by giving to others in deep and impactful ways.

Two people with integrity.

 

• One is frustrated because of a boss who is not leading with integrity and vision. He opened up a difficult conversation with this boss. He tried to work it through. He said things like, “You never…” “Why can’t you…?”

[This is blaming language. It leads to defensiveness or stonewalling. It escalates.]

 

• The other is frustrated because a program near and dear to her heart could get cut by the powers that be. She felt she couldn’t approach the powers so she wrote a cathartic letter to her colleagues who shared her view and blasted the leaders who didn’t.

[This is passive aggressive. This creates festering wounds inside of an organization. This is actually contemptuous.]

 

 One of my core values is that WORDS MATTER.

The words we use can create and destroy. How we speak shapes who we are and how we share meaning. When we speak from the heart we all change. We need to make room for multiple voices: those inside of us and those around us. 

My people were speaking from their frustration. From their sense of powerlessness. From their head actually disconnected from their heart. When I redirected them to their heart (and taught them a few key communication tips) the one was able to have a new kind of conversation with his boss and the other mustered the courage to speak directly and constructively to the powers that be.

 

Two lessons for me:

1)      Being human (even the best of humans) means coming face to face with emotions that are not always pretty. And so often, especially when we are good people, we hide those emotions --from ourselves. Until they leak out. Until they show up in our words.

 2)      The only way out is through—our feelings. And we need to vent and let ourselves have our tantrums and our rants. And then we need to take a deep breath and ask ourselves, “What is the conversation I need to have now? With Whom? How can I speak from my heart and be heard?” 

 

Patience

"It is only after we kindle the light in the words that we are able to behold the riches they contain. It is only after we arrive within a word that we become aware of the riches our own souls contain."

A.J. Heschel in Man's Quest for God

 

I am on my own quest to learn how to do this. My experiment so far...

I am taking the word PATIENCE and have started to light the word with the candle of my attention. When am I patient? When am I impatient? When do I give in to my impatience? What relationships help me cultivate patience? How am I patient with myself? When does that serve me? 

 

I am learning that PATIENCE is indeed laden with riches. And there are links to other words. Permission. Allow. Need. Love.

 

I arrive within PATIENCE by giving it form and substance. By practicing patience with my full awareness. I notice an urge to get up for a snack. I wait. I feel no hunger. Only a growing awareness of wanting to be distracted. I allow the need for distraction to percolate. There are emotions bubbling up. There is fear there. There is longing. There is even laughter. 

And so it goes. A slow dawning awareness of what is real and sacred within me 

If this quote holds you in its hands and looks deeply into your eyes then please, tell me what you see?