I read this quote in a daily email I get from Flying Edna.
“As much as I love words, they may not always be as necessay as I think they are.” Fia
I do love words. I write every week. I journal pretty much every day. Sometimes I write poetry. I write this blog, a Sunday message for Soul Center, birthday cards. I like to deeply understand words…beyond their dictionary meaning. I want to use the right words to get my point across. To say words are important to me is an understatement.
This quote is an invitation for me to consider how necessary they really are. Sometimes I have a tendency to over-communicate…trying to be certain that the other person understands me completely. Is that always possible? Probably not. Other times I want to offer options and advice when what might be more useful is simply listening. And sometimes, I realize, my opinion is better just kept to myself.
Maybe there is something even more important than words. Or maybe just as important. This quote from Maya Angelou sums it up:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Still learning.
Paula
One Response
Very nice piece. My takeaway is realizing the importance of feelings. What anagalates me most ( now there’s a word you won’t find in a dictionary) is speakers who pride themselves in their platform skills, never realizing the importance feelings have in the listener’s memory of what was said. That absence is also compounded detrimentally if there is no opportunity to observe nonverbal cues, a problem technology has to struggle with when so much communication is with words only. I myself much prefer in-person exchanges, when possible. Cliff