The past week or so a lot has been happening. The energy around us is definitely at a place where we are each being asked to take a deeper look at ourselves. Looking deeper usually means there will be things we uncover that make us feel uncomfortable. We each have thoughts, habits, and moments in our lives that we don’t see or think of as “good”, mostly because of how they make us feel. So we try to push these things away, but what really happens is that we hide them deep inside ourselves. When we do this, we are allowing those emotions to stagnate and in turn they sour our perspective of ourselves and our world. We’ve learned to cope with this by wearing our masks, hiding ourselves even more.
The key is in knowing this, recognition of a thing opens one up to a new perspective.
So as we dive deeper into ourselves, we uncover the things that have become stagnate in order to bring them back into the order and flow of our being. See… every part of our being is valuable and important. Every aspect of our self is key to living in harmony and flow with our existence.
The importance of all we’ve hidden away has been lost through a misunderstanding of love. We can more clearly understand the vastness of love when we look at the Greek language…
- Eros: sensual pleasure, beauty and sexuality
- Storge: love for family, deep friendship, peaceful and slow
- Ludus: playful love, entertainment and excitement
- Agape: love for everyone, compassionate and selfless
- Pragma: longstanding love, practical and traditional
- Philautia: love of the self, mania both good and bad
Love is just one example of how words lose their power through interpretation. Another word I’d like to point out is:
Vulnerable
-
susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm.
“we were in a vulnerable position”
-
(of a person) in need of special care, support, or protection because of age, disability, or risk of abuse or neglect.
“employees must be better trained in how to deal with vulnerable young people”
Origin: early 17th century: from late Latin vulnerabilis, from Latin vulnerare ‘to wound,’ from vulnus ‘wound.’
When thinking about what it means to use a word we have multiple factors to consider! What’s the origin of the word? Where did it come from? What is the word’s original meaning? Is it different from what I thought it meant? Is the word used differently through time and space? What does the word make me think? How does the word make me feel? What context is the word being used, and by whom?
I have been using the word vulnerable lately in reference to being open and uncomfortable in relation to my connection and ability to share my shadows with other people. I was going to write this blog about how true love comes from gratitude and vulnerability. However after taking a closer look into the world vulnerable, I am realizing that it is not the word I want to use.
There is so much wrong with its definition, I don’t even know where to start. Being vulnerable doesn’t make you weak, helpless, or powerless! I believe that being vulnerable makes you strong and gives you power… you’re opening yourself up to change and growth. Change and growth are empowering and allow a person to really be strong in their knowledge of self. So perhaps change and growth, being vulnerable, does wound you… but not in the sense that it hurts or harms you and makes you powerless. Perhaps we can see it as wounding your old perspective to be a catalyst for a new perspective. Though even wound is the wrong word because it means an injury to living tissue caused by a cut, blow, or other impact, typically one in which the skin is cut or broken, or a person’s feelings or reputation.
Wow…the English language is so limiting… as most languages are. Language is the first thing that begins the separation process… between all beings… plant, animal and human. Imagine a world with no word… how would we communicate? There is evidence that we communicate through our thoughts… energy. Which I know from first hand experience is true, though sometimes it seems more difficult to hear than other times. Perhaps its a matter of meditation, and quieting our mind to be able to discern when we are hearing each other versus when we hear our own thoughts. But we do live in a world formed through words.
If we aren’t able to truly comprehend the meaning of a word… we do not know the power we possess. As humans, we have the ability to use the word to create. We create thoughts, feelings, actions. We create states in others and ourselves.
Words have the power to change the world, as we find in creation stories all over time and space declaring “in the beginning was the word.”
So, do you really know what you’re saying? Have you spent time looking at the words you use and how you use them? Do your words truly mean what you think they mean?
There is a more effective way to communicate with one another and ourselves…through better awareness of the power of words.
Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean.
Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.
Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
To truly know unconditional love… we must first know ourselves, and to do so we must be clear on what words we are using through exploring, questioning and reflecting on their meaning in order to express ourselves and our existence authentically.
Migwetch & Gizaagiin
<3 Raine Dawn
