Thought for The Day - The Voice on the other End

...of the Line

....the text

....the IM

....the Prayer

It's apparent our tools are useful. Our tools allow distance to be bridged with sparks and whispers of electricity. We can hear, see and as such, we remain in contact.

Goodbye can have such finality. My mom wouldn't allow us to say it when we left for the day; she told us to say "see you later." She said "goodbye" was almost a way of ensuring we would leave one another (somehow) and never see one another again. And yet, the idea isn't a bad one. The years have brought many friends into my life, mostly through Church or Work environments. And many have seemingly gone away, never to be heard from again. But others remain a phone call, text or Facebook messenger away.

Physicality and proximity...nothing like it! My daughter lives in New York, my son attends school in Missouri. And certainly we talk on the phone and through text often. We have a family chat where it's like having them sitting around the kitchen table again. But nothing is like having family, friends and close associates present and for more than a few minutes!

Thought for The Day - Say It Anyway!

Not the insult

Not the gossip

Not someone else's issues or concerns

The world is crowded with that stuff and quite frankly, that stuff is why we don't say what needs to be said. But say "it," anyway. Say what needs to be said, what is encouraging, what is truthful and what spreads love. Sometimes, the words seem to fall on death ears. It might seem that "no response" is the equivalent of "I'm not listening," but say it anyway.

The world is full of words, to the extent, it is perceived: "words are just words." But words have always and will continue to be a source of power. Carefully chosen words can change the world and words spoken with intention, certainly change hearts and mind.

Write it anyway; when no one responds, when the usual replies and "likes" don't occur, when you wrote with  ____ in mind, but someone else responds, write it anyway. Now it's easy for me to write these things. And quite honestly, given the "right place," they are just as easy to say. But please believe, there are more than a few times I have to "take my own medicine." I am a listener, by nature. My default practice is listening. But it seems, because I listen intently, I am to respond better. Because I hear what you're saying as well as what you aren't, and I listen to God's spirit as He tries to respond, my words contain healing.

You know, there are days when I don't say much; I've used this and other platforms to say what is on my mind. And it can be downright unbearable when I don't get a reply. But I say it, I write it anyway. In this way, words that needed to be said, expectations for this world are expressed and little by little, our perception shifts. We become more and more as the divine manifestation we are intended to be.

Say it anyway.