Everyone Has a Story

Once again, I have spent my morning reading other people's blogs. Why am I so drawn to these people that I don't even know?

There are many reasons ... one of them being, that I am quietly cheering them on from my own corner of the world. But another, is that I am in awe of their ability to put the words to what so many others are going through.

These people will never know the full extent of how their honesty and ability to communicate it has touched, encouraged and validated so many others.

The written word is very powerful.

Some people have a magical way of putting their words together, telling their story and getting their point across eloquently.

Some people don't have the capacity to put their feelings into words but can feel everything that another has written about, in the context of their own life.

Some people try to put their words to paper, but the intent is garbled. There appears to be a disconnection between the honest emotion that they are trying to express, and the actual words that come out. Unfortunately, they read their own words as they felt them and aren't aware that the intent of their message didn't make it to the written word.

Then again ... there are others, who write words in judgement. Maybe they are from the group that are trying to write one thing and say another. Maybe they are insensitive to the pain their words will inflict. Maybe that is their 'language' and it is simply the way that they communicate.

In any case ... words, once spoken or written (and shared) can't be taken back.

Everyone has a story. It is impossible to know what lies hidden underneath the layers of a person that you encounter. Well meaning words can sometimes inflict an enormous amount of pain because you simply don't know their story.

As I read of the pain that these young mothers are coping with ... I wonder if I too, could innocently make a remark that hits a nerve or ask an insensitive question.

I sat and wondered what the safest words could be, when making light conversation with a person you really don't know. All I could come up with was:
Everyone has a story ... there is more to a person than meets the eye.
Less, is more sometimes when it comes to words.

How many times does a simple comment that someone makes to me, result in an instant movie flashback of a time in my life that is triggered by those words? All of the time. I quite possibly have a novel for each of the times a 'trigger' has been hit.

My novels are pretty painless, as far as life goes. But there are so many survivors of so many tragedies of life, that unknowingly cross our paths every single day.

Remembering that every one's story isn't blazing across their forehead in neon lights should make me gentle with my words and sensitive to the scars that don't show.