choosing & claiming
September 8, 2013 § 2 Comments
Recently my thoughts have chased around a common theme, the words we use and our responsibility to ourselves and others to exercise integrity. It began just before one of my posts was selected for Freshly Pressed. Days before the happy surprise I mused to my husband, What if I were finally Pressed and the post was one I wouldn’t wish to be my introduction to a greater audience?
There’s a vulnerability in collecting thoughts, beliefs, uncertainties and worries in a public forum. We release pieces of ourselves for critic and interpretation by strangers and friends, alike. Of course this truth extends into every corner of our life, beyond the words we consciously choose to share in writing.
At the same time I was curiously contemplating the value of introductions to strangers in written language, I met my children’s educators and support staff for an introduction that called me to question how we identify self in the context of education. I mulled over my statements alongside each teacher’s sharing looking for reflections of possibility and lines in the sand, trying to map the year ahead in a dialogue of partnership by first identifying my role as my children’s advocate.
A series of otherwise inconsequential events seemed to clutter pockets of my day with distractions; peer interactions, social media, serendipitous exchanges in supermarkets and school yards. In each instance this theme of language, choosing our words and claiming ownership of our thoughts in writing, speech, and silence have been following me like a string of tin cans rattling noisily between business begging me to look behind me and forcing stillness.
I tend to believe that these little life nudges are born of a subconscious warning that calls our attention to a reflective state. Today I am nestling in, trying to find the message that has been following me between statements of self, asking me to evaluate my words and uncover a lesson I might otherwise be overlooking.
scribblechic 
You’ve a Pied Piper thing going as I want to follow and see the meaning of your trailing chain. In my own life, I’ve noticed that some of my casual disposable thoughts are attached to my chain of tin cans and that they’ve cut people. It’s hard to know what owning that chain means and how to take responsibility for it. Feed it? Apologize for it? Prune it? Best of luck with yours.
I can make no promise of grand enlightenment, but I welcome the company in self-reflection. I think the noise of uncertainty almost always begs silence and introspection.