Whispering Wyrd

“Words are energy and they cast spells, that’s why it’s called spelling.” – Bruce Lee
 “Of course words are magic. That’s why they call it spelling.” – Brian Holguin

There’s a lot of power in words. They can hurt a person down to the soul, and they can heal too.

I’m old enough to remember a good part of life before the internet, before social media, and before everyone was connected all the time. It feels like there’s a dividing line now… pre-internet and after, today. Now we live in constant, all pervading connectedness. And so many of the words seem to be used like weapons now.

Everyone has the right to speak freely and hold opinions on politics, religion, and everything in between. But there’s a difference between expressing an opinion and attacking another person for having an opinion too. Too often these days people aren’t just simply sharing what they believe, they’re trying to hurt others for believing different.

Yesterday afternoon I was walking out of our local Walmart when I saw a couple of young men set up outside with merchandise and literature for recovery. I’ve seen people out there raising money for all kinds of causes, but this was the first time I’d seen anybody doing it for recovery programs.

I stopped and talked with them for a while and we had a really good conversation. We shared stories about addiction, recovery, and where life had taken us. These were genuinely kind young men, and it made me happy to see how passionate they were about helping others get free from the hell of addiction.

The message they were offering people was simple… You don’t have to stay stuck there. Recovery is possible. That is the kind of use of words that heals people. It’s so different from words used only to hurt strangers online. Those kinds of vicious words don’t just hurt the person they’re aimed at, because they spew from a heart full of pain. Anger breeds more anger, but anger has never healed anyone.

There’s an old teaching that anger is like picking up a red-hot coal to throw at someone else, you burn yourself first. And seriously, what will it matter in ten or twenty years if some stranger on a social media site had a different opinion than you?

Those young men outside Walmart didn’t have to do what they were doing. They’re already clean. They could have just moved on with their lives. But that’s not how healing works.

I could stay quiet about getting clean and staying clean too, but that would be selfish. Everyone I know who has gotten clean or sober or found recovery shares it freely and openly. We want others to know that life can be different. We want others to know that what feels impossible today can be possible tomorrow.

There is life after addiction. And not just life, real life. A richer, fuller, and healthier life than anything addiction ever promised and lied about. That’s why we share our stories. That’s why we speak hope out loud. That’s why we recover out loud.

Amituofo
~Buck