So the other day I heard this song on Pandora .

It got me to thinking about words and other people’s words.

As soon as I type out these words in my head, they are no longer living in me. They are dead words. Don’t get me wrong: dead words contain the potential for lots of information. But they are printed on dead trees with dead ink with dead pictures (or dead electrons.)

By dead I mean they are no longer living fresh in the mind of the thinker who thought them. I think we can feel that way about most self-help or improvement books we read. Over and over and over, we buy more and more books. Sooner or later, we get the feeling we’re reading the same thing the same way for the same millionth time. We wonder what we spent all that money and time on!

But that’s only if you hang on to dead words. Our job as readers is to pick up on what these words are pointing to. What is the author trying to convey? Not with his mind but with his heart. What is her experience with this great matter?

I think if we can  try to feel what the author is pointing to, words become more than just talk talk being flung at us. They become our crowbar to unlocking real change. They become our link across the separation between us. I can know you thru your words, and you me.

These words aren’t to be talked to you, they are to be lived by you. “Believed” by you, if you take them up and make them your own impetus to take the next step…

Take care with your words and they will take care of you.