Talk like there are barely any cookies left.

I've been struggling with how peoples words and actions don't match up. It is a battle that is really hard for me being a poet and writer. I always think.."if I say something I mean it".  Why don't others? If I say I'll be at the birthday party---I am there. If I propose to you and say I want to spend the rest of my life with you---it's  not conditional pending on my mood the next day. If I say I won't do something---I don't do it. If I say I care. I do. If I say something is worth it and I am going to try----I try. And my actions follow the exact words I give. If I don't mean it. I don't say it. I don't tell one person one thing and tell the other the exact opposite. I don't contradict my words for fear of someone judging my actions. I use my words for good. I use them to communicate in healthy ways.  I don't just say things to appease. Its as if every word is precisely measured and cut just for my audience. For my friend. For my family. For my lover. If you have my word you have my everything. Unfortunately, I have been duped. Fooled. Lied to. Taken advantage of. And so I look at words in a deeper way lately. The average person says about 16, 000 words a day. That’s 112,000 words every week. That’s over five million words every year. We use words. A lot. Words. Words. Word to your mother. 

American culture. Yes this culture in particular, is a place where words are taken advantage of, mass produced. It is as if they are worthless, and carry no depth. It is almost like the words we use have become the equivalent of a credit card. Just like how we spend money more thoughtlessly with a plastic card and think about it later, our words are being regurgitated without consideration of the effect in that moment. They are being thrown at people without acknowledgement of their hurt or impact.  I know this because I have been stuck in a place where someone has given me in the moment words. Words that seem recycled only days later as their actions to back them up say opposite. 

Even with this realization, it is so easy to throw words around as if at our disposal. This translates into muffled communication, which places less of a value on the words. Resulting in a waste of rationed words that could have held meaning, but instead are being used as a space or a filler. They lose their credibility. They become a pass through. They break trust. They are shuffled.  Worn out hand me downs shared with too many people to look good anymore. Used to much to actually mean something.  Is this you? Do you mean what you say? Do you follow through? Can your words be trusted a week later? A month later? Or are you only living in the moment with a wallet full of credit cards? 

Well. I challenge you. To start this challenge, imagine that for a week you only had a word limit of 5,000 words per day. To put this budgeted amount into perspective, take the average amount of words that people say in one day is around 16,000. . With a budget of over half of your daily words, communication might become more of a focus. Might hold more value.  You might only say what you mean, and mean what you say. 

With this drastic limitation, each word spoken holds much more meaning.  Your words are careful. Delicate. How might this challenge affect not only how you communicate generally, but personally and emotionally as well? 

It's true. Anything that there is a surplus of becomes undervalued. Cars. Jewelry. The latest MacBook. A beanie baby. The value of something changes based on how much of it there is. When there are 100 cookies on a table after a meeting you might keep talking to some friends for awhile. But when there are only a few cookies, they seem precious, special. You’ll probably rush over there and if you get one in time, that bite is a lot sweeter.  Isn't it? Because we hear and use so many words every day they don’t mean much to us. But we should see them as precious. A gift. Carefully used and not filling a gap.  Words should be valued and trusted. 

Thinking about this has led me to consider the impact that my mouth and writing makes in life; my own as well as others. I have been really surprised to see how the simple building blocks of language can drastically change my day, or those around me.

Words have the power to make our world would be a better  place to life, work, and play. Especially, if our word currency is considered valuable. It would change the songs that you sing, the poems you write, the I love yous that you give, the promises that you make, the support you offer, the social media rants you post, and the words that you speak everyday, to strangers and to those that mean the most to you. 

Words hold value every day. It is up to us to start taking advantage, and re-evaluate how their use can be beneficial to all of our life-worlds. After all, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all." Tomorrow when you wake up--Believe there are only ever two cookies left.

Speak like the cookies are scarce.