Sticks and Stones

"Sticks and Stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me," is a lie.

In the The Three Little Pigs, the three houses are made of straw, sticks and brick/stone.

Functional life is a balance between being straw that will bend in wind and stone that cannot be blown over. We need to be pliable enough to be functional yet not be blown flat. We need to be strong yet not have hearts of stone.

Along with experiences, words build us up or flatten us.

Phrases handed to me by friends have become part of my life. Each one was a gift of words that has helped me to focus on what is important. They are words, but they are NOT just words.

I hope this list expands and I hope to also develop a "reject list".


1. He's not Jesus.
This seems obvious enough, but I find that I am more willing to accept my own weaknesses than those of my husband or other people. After all, my life would be a whole lot easier if THEY were perfect. This first phrase was directed to me almost twenty years ago by Margie when I was complaining about my spouse, but the phrase applies to anyone of whom I have expectations.


2. It's like water off a duck's back.
We have a choice to hang on to offenses and load them into our virtual backpack of sorrows adn resentment, or we can let them go. It takes the mind-set of #1 to apply this one without resentment. This phrase was handed to me by Kelly, a Park Ranger I was supervising. Who knows what I was upset about.

The third was handed to me by Lezlie who said it came from her grandmother.
3. Do not sweat things that are not of eternal value.
Seriously folks, that virtual backpack of sorrows and resentment can drag us down. It is SOOOOO important to figure out what is REALLY important. The one thing that really counts is your soul/spirit. If your spirit is holy everything else falls into place.

More to come...