— RIVA. LOUD AS A WHISPER. 42477.2

There’s no avoiding the fact that the right words can be crucial. The ground-breaking Treaty of Alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire would’ve been useless without wording that offered no chance for misinterpretation. Ordinary business contracts, too, require careful selection of words to define obligations and relationships, not only for the parties directly involved, but for those who may inherit their provisions.

Interpersonal relationships, however, often rely on meanings that can’t be captured by words. In fact, what is not said can be more important that what is. Sometimes the real meaning may flatly contradict the words. Even strong criticism can communicate love if delivered with compassion, or with an arm gently encircling another’s shoulders. The most bumbling, clumsily-worded apology—or compliment, or proposal of marriage—can sound like poetry if one’s heart is in it.

Words, after all, are only tools. We must practice listening through the words we hear to what lies “under them.” And we must measure our own words in the same way—not by the mere sounds our vocal chords make, but by what resonates within us, and by what we do.

Genuine meaning lies deeper than words. Without discounting what people say, I will look into their eyes, I will listen to their hearts. And to my own.

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The above meditation is taken from Going Boldly on Your Inner Voyage © 1999-2004, IF Books.

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