Just a Word

“Sorry.” 

Whispered with his eyes cast down at the floor and his head shaking slightly from side to side. I knew she didn’t make it. 

“Yes!” 

After a long, pregnant pause the man on one knee got up and slid the ring on her finger.

“No.” 

A toddler sits in a time-out chair. Two teenagers find their first relationship at a crossroads. 

“Goodbye.” 

They were grateful for the time they had left. The precious few months that gave them a chance to say it. 

“Hello.”

She holds her brand new baby for the first time, and an entire tiny hand wraps itself around one finger.

“Whore.”

A 13-year-old girl feels shame, anger, distrust, and disgust simultaneously for the first time. It is a feeling that will stay with her every time she looks back on this moment.

“Mine.”

A brother and a sister fight.

“God.” 

Lives are saved, people changed. Wars are fought. Lives are lost. 

“Remission.”

The word they had been too scared to hope to hear, now brings joyful tears. 

“Free.”

After four years in a prison camp. It is hard to believe it is real. 

“Love.”

It is the hardest word for that foster child to understand. Why does a piece always seem to be missing? A widower is shocked when he stumbles upon it again. 

“And?” 

She asks him in the middle of his apology. Will the answer be enough to make her stay, or is this the end of the road for them? 

There is no such thing as just a word. 

Words hold the power of creation and destruction. They are the most powerful force on Earth. We believe God spoke the world into motion. With words.  

Our forefathers used them to found a new country. 

The Geneva Conventions that govern the standards of humanitarian treatment of the free world? A bunch of words.

The closing arguments that attorneys give to help decide the fate of a person over the next 15-20 years? Words.  

What do I remember most about family members who have passed on? Stories. Loving words.

Words change our lives. Every day you have the capacity to read a book, an article, or a single Facebook comment that completely alters your perspective. Those a-ha moments that shape you into a slightly different, more enlightened person? Almost all of those moments involve words.  

Yet we still think that people should not be hurt when we throw them without thinking?

“It’s just a word,” we will justify our behavior to ourselves. Sticks and stones and all of that. 

“Other people use it all the time.” 

“I’m just expressing myself, I can’t take responsibility for how you perceive anything.” 

“She is overreacting.” 

We leave our words behind in minds and hearts and blogs and letters. In songs, and in conversations, even those we did not mean to be overheard.  

The pencil marks can be erased, but the impression on the soul cannot.

We shape those around us carelessly, without intent.  

Or sometimes, defensive, we go for the attack. 

Today all I ask is that all of us be thoughtful. 

Our words are the legacy we leave behind. 

May yours be great.