Poof! Our words are seed pods on the wind~
Asclepias L. (1753), the milkweeds, is a genus of herbaceous perennial, dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species ...
This is the scientific data on it from Wikipedia but it is known more commonly as Milkweed Pod. In autumn when the pods split open, the rough brown eyelet shaped seeds are actually follicles which are carried from the pod on the wind on soft filaments called silk or floss. I did a blog on the spring blooming portion which are presumably delicious to the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies. The sap of the leaves and stalk in spring and summer are a milky white which contributes to its name.
The silks are most beautiful, not unlike dandelion puffs but sturdier. Milkweed silks, after having the follicle removed, can be used as pillow or fabric stuffing, for example.
My focus though, is the comparison of our words which are carried about as we voice them, like the milkweed seed on the wind.
Is what we speak something we want carried about on the wind? This is a good reminder to watch the words before they float out.
Where will the land? Will they pollinate and produce good fruit or will they cause ourselves embarrassment or worse; that they lay dormant or immediately cause hurt?
We have all done it; we have said something we should not have and most of the time, we know it right away because of the expression on the face of the one we spoke it to. Proverbs is liberally sprinkled with chapters about speaking inadvisedly both with and without intent to maim! See Chapters 11, 18, 20 and 26, just to start with.
Psalms also is full of instruction (try a word study on the word "tongue") and the power we have with the words we speak.
The verse that I find particularly arresting however is Proverbs 18:21
Death and Life are in the power of the tongue.
That about says it all, yes?
We all can remember also some hurtful thing that a parent or a loved one said to us as well. Maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was a long time ago and we forgot until some trigger brought it to the forefront of our mind again and there IT is, that thing. That awful thing that someone said to us that never should have been uttered.
Somebody can look this up and remind me where it is but there is a verse that reads "Can a fountain send forth bitter and sweet water at the same time?" It ought not to be so that we can say "I love you" and "You are rotten" out of the same mouth.
If you heard this from a parent spoken to a child, would you intervene?
We police our children and instruct them.
Do we police ourselves?
Let us, the next time we are about to say something that we should not, that we are encouraged by that inner small still voice "Don't say that".
If we goof up and speak it anyway and are not corrected for it by the other person, let that inner small still voice say to us "You should not have said that!" so that we can learn from it.
Maybe we need to apologize, maybe the opportunity will never present itself but we can still learn from it.
Let us visualize our words and their impact before the hammer hits and be aware that what we speak should be more like wisps of silk on the wind; hurting no one and planting seeds of good growth and food to others.
Happy planting! Here are some pics from my Sunday afternoon walk.
