Piggy backing on my very aggressive encounter yesterday, one of the phrases that came out of my mouth, that may have been overlooked in the posting, was – you can say whatever you want to me, they are only words. Although that did not go over well with my already angry suitor, who then only cursed me out more, I began to think of why I said it to him.

When I was very young, I remember my mom telling me that ‘sticks and stones can break your bones, but names shall never hurt you’.

Only if you give words power can they actually emotionally hurt you and more often than not it is for a brief time. Yes, sometimes emotional pain can be worse than physical pain; no band-aid to put across to help it heal, no Bactine to burn the hurt out of you (that anti-bacterial spray actually hurt worse than the cut!), no bacitracin to keep bacteria out and heal faster… nope, this is all on you and whether you choose to let words have power.

I considered the source yesterday and that is something to keep in mind too when you come across someone mentally stunted and trying to intimidate you with words. Just laugh because the source is too inept to realize the anger and energy they are wasting on you. It is going to burn inside him/her for a very long time trying to understand why it didn’t bother you and that anger will feed on itself.

It may take a few hours or a few days to put it behind you, but you can, and that is the simple enjoyment of ‘sticks and stones’ logic – – you can just let it go and enjoy.

After all, they are just words, floating thru the air for a millisecond and then gone forever.