Rocks

The funny thing about throwing a rock into a lake is that you never know how long the ripples in the water will last. You can't see the soul of the animals underneath to know how they are affected. What if you throw the rock and it just falls right in, the waves and disruptions are minimal. But, if the rock skips, even accidentally, then the waves, ripples, disruptions are longer, worse than you had anticipated.

Our words are just like those rocks. We throw words daily, good...bad. We speak to our kids, friends, husbands, families, coworkers. Sometimes the words we speak, like a rock thrown seem to have little affect. Other times our words like a rock skipped make bigger ripples than we intended. And just like the rock, whether thrown or skipped, we will never know the true impact our words have on the lives (whether human, animal or nature) around us...

I read somewhere that the words that we speak are the window to our soul.... hmmmm..... that is a hard concept to fully embrace. I think the words we speak are merely a reflection of the thoughts in our head. We can say words in anger that we don't really mean. We can say words that make sense in our heads but are not heard the way we intended. The words that we speak may reflect our hearts but just like the rock the affect is also in how they are thrown and how they are received. If the water is already wavy, the rock only adds to the disruption. It has the ability to make the waves worse, or to go by simply unnoticed. If the rock is thrown or skipped into calm water, the impact is more noticable. If you are speaking to someone who is not paying attention, already angry or has predetermined how the conversation will go then your words will not make that much of a difference. However, if the person you are talking to is paying attention, listening with an open heart, your words will have a bigger impact.

There is nothing wrong with throwing rocks and/or talking...really both are necessities in life... just remember once it is let go, either on purpose or accident, when happy or mad, you can never get the rock or the words back....