{Traffic Jams}

“I want to write something so simply about love or about pain that even as you are reading you feel it and as you read you keep feeling it and though it be my story it will be common, though it be singular it will be known to you so that by the end you will think— no, you will realize— that it was all the while yourself arranging the words, that it was all the time words that you yourself, out of your heart had been saying.” ― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems This tattered rose reminds me of a heart-which reminds me, for some reason, about a lesson I did as a school counselor sometime ago about the effects of words on the heart. It was a great visual exercise to demonstrate to tweens how their behavior impacts someone and can leave its mark for years to come. Taking a piece of paper, clean and uncrumpled, I repeated words I heard in the hallway that were unkind or bullying in nature. With each word or phrase the paper crumpled and slowly formed into a ball. As I pulled it back to it's original shape, it remained crinkled and torn. Much like a person's heart after it's been hurt by another. It never is the same. It worked for awhile. The kids all were shocked, hugged and promised to be nice to each other from here on out:) A school counselor win. Thinking about my own life and having been on both sides of the coin, I know broken and bruised hearts are unavoidable. We grow up, carry more stories and more baggage. Hurt people, hurt people. Friends fight, divorces happen, parents fall off pedestals. And I know, with time, those wrinkles in the heart heal, toughen up and are our life story. The heart is a precious and powerful organ. It filters life into every inch of our bodies and is home to the soul. Personally, I don't want to be a person who intentionally damages such a remarkable thing. But, my mouth, can get me into a lot of trouble. When I'm tired, hungry, feeling threatened, irritated, overstimulated, being cut off in traffic, or perhaps you are in front of me in the grocery store express line with one over the allotted amount for check-out....oh boy that one does it. So there it is. Just a ongoing responsibility to censor my mouth with intention and awareness. Or maybe I'll listen more and talk less. That's where peace starts. And now I'm just starting to go off in a loop and ramble. So I finish with saying that the point of all this to reminds myself to mind my words (said in a teacher tone). The heart is precious and delicate. Like this beautiful and weathered rose. So the next time I am cut off on 494 after a long day at work, instead of shouting a very obvious profanity in exaggerated form so the other driver can tell what I said, I will blow that person a kiss or give a thumbs up and this small change will add more peace and love into the world (sappy sappy...:)..)