March 30, 2021
The Power of Words
By Amba Gale
Normally, we think of language as a place to describe, report on, analyze, instruct, prescribe, conceptualize. Our words refer to something that “IS” – out there. And we are just reporting on it. Theologian Abraham Heschel has said, “Words create worlds.
However, we can generate another relationship with language. Language can also CREATE. Martin Heidegger, a 19th century philosopher, said, “Language is the house of being. In its home, man dwells. Those who think, and those who create, are the guardians of this home.”
With creating our words, we create our world, give rise to who we are in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. The words we choose to create and then live into give us our reality. We have the power to shape our perspective by the words we choose to inhabit, and the words we choose to inhabit give us our world.
As we begin to clear our minds and cleanse our hearts, as we begin to emerge into a new Spring in our lives, perhaps it is time for a re-design of our lives, for ourselves, for one another, for the planet.
In the course, The Joy of Being, I like us all to address the question, “what is the ing verb that you are?”
What are the Words (and the Worlds) you create for yourself, to be, to live?
Choose Your Words
By Amba Gale
The wick in my candle
has grown so long during
these months and years of
cocooning, hibernation, lock down, break down,
re-imagining.
What is the ing word that you choose?
Sheltering,
healing,
grieving,
fearing,
worrying,
discovering,
learning,
re-setting,
pausing,
stopping,
serving,
practicing,
re-imagining,
kindness-ing,
giving gratitude,
living in wonder,
improvising,
inventing,
stand taking
breaking through,
contributing,
celebrating,
creating perspective,
learning,
giving Joy.
Choose your words, carefully.
Each word gives,
gives you your life.
Speaks,
speaks you
in this threshold coursing time;
speaks your meaning,
speaks your purpose,
speaks your life,
brings you and your world
into Being.
