POIGNANT WORDS

I have often said, in my blog and to my friends and family, that words are everything. When you say something, you have to be sure that you are saying what you mean because people have a way of not actually hearing the words but reading into the words something that they think that you have said. I have often cautioned my own mother of this because she says something, I refute it, and then it sounds like it was a falsehood; a lie. It's not so great to accuse your own mother of telling a lie.

So, when I was looking at some of the blogs that I like to follow I came across Kim's blog. Her blog is aptly called: Words on Paper Scraps. She has such a poignant quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. there that just spoke to me exactly of what I have been feeling/saying. It says:

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

That's it exactly. THINGS THAT MATTER.

This has been a really difficult holiday season for me. I have been very emotional too, crying at the drop of a hat and when I read that one of you has suffered a loss. I find myself missing people more this season and wishing that they were here with me. Some of them will never be here again; others have just gone away for a visit. But, nonetheless, I am without them in my presence and it makes it hard for me, experiencing that loss this year.

These people, these things: they MATTER to me otherwise I wouldn't be so upset. I feel the loss and it hurts me deeply. Will it ever be the same again? I wonder. To me, some of the losses are forever. They have gone on, passed "over". Some of the losses are only temporary. I have to share (unfortunately) my daughters, their husbands, and my granddaughter with the in-laws. That is understandable and something that can't really be changed. It doesn't make it any easier for me though. I still feel the loss; experience the sadness that I am left with here at home. Some of the losses are new to me this year. Invitations not being proffered despite what the outcome might be. These MATTER. They sting.

Words. Words are all I have at this time. Words are my friends right now. Words express what I am feeling, what I am experiencing. When I look to see the definition of the word poignant it tells me "words" but these "words" express exactly what is going on inside of me right now.

• TO PRICK OR STING
• PUNGENTLY PERVASIVE
• PAINFULLY AFFECTING THE FEELINGS: PIERCING
• DEEPLY AFFECTING: TOUCHING
• DESIGNED TO MAKE AN IMPRESSION: CUTTING
• BEING TO THE POINT
• MOVING

So, thank you Kim from Words on Paper Scraps. Had I not seen your blog today, I wouldn't have seen the great quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It gave me the opportunity to not be silent about things that matter. And, it gave me a great opportunity to use the photo I took in Grass Valley of the storefront that has the same title. Any other day, I wouldn't have noticed the storefront. But, that day, I did! Because: words matter. Words are everything. And, like I have said before: everything is connected in life. The point is to know it and understand it.