Always Speak Kindly

Always speak kindly.

I grew up in a home where people did not speak kindly.  Instead, they yelled and fought constantly.

While they fought, I hid in a small cove at the back of my closet with a small tape recorder, some books on tape, and a flashlight.  There I taught myself to read by the time I was three and a half years old.

One day before was four years old, I was at Grandma’s house.  I read out loud a plaque on her wall and wondered what it meant.  It said, “Remember all the words you say, keep them soft and sweet. You never know from day to day which ones you’ll have to eat”.

When I asked Grandma how to eat words, she laughed. Then she hugged me and asked me how I had learned to read so well.  She looked sad when I told her how I taught myself to read but then she explained about eating words.

I have never forgotten that poem or the kind way she explained what it means to me, and I have always tried to live by it.

The fact is that you cannot eat words.  Once you communicate something, you cannot take it back.

Sometimes something good comes from unkind words, like me teaching myself to read at a young age.  But usually, the only thing that comes from unkind words is pain and heartbreak.

The person you said those words to might forgive you, but they seldom forget them.

With my traumatic brain injury, it would be easy for me to snap and communicate something unkind.  So when I need to communicate information on a tense subject, I write what I need to communicate, wait a while, and then reread it.  Then a good friend gives me a second opinion before I deliver my message.

When the situation is not frustrating, I simply speak what I think.  But when it is frustrating, I follow my process for communicating on a frustrating topic.

Please think before you speak and remember to always speak kindly.

Let the encouraging words in these near a river posts help you

soar like an eagle above life’s storms.

Heard the frog story?

How can we possibly have peace?

Do you have too many “ANTS” in your life?

You can protect your privacy even in our digital times.

Enjoy BJ’s encouraging words

on near a river!

BJ’s encouraging eagle

Near a River

common core

reading book for children

is available on

Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

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eagle reading book

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you care about today!