Words, Windows or Walls?

Words, windows or walls? Today I have been thinking on how we speak to each other; it is so easy to hurt others without realizing... I suddenly remembered this poem from a book I read last year. It reminds me that to talk is always as having a conversation through a land line, there are filters on both sides of the line. Filters change the sound of our voice, or at least, how it sounds to the one who listens. I, sometimes, wish that we could hear what people really want to say with the words they pronounce. What do you say about yourself? (John 1, 22)

Words are windows, or they’re walls,
They sentence us, or set us free.
When I speak and when I hear,
Let the love light shine through me.
There are things I need to say,

Things that mean so much to me,
If my words don’t make me clear,
Will you help me to be free?
If I seemed to put you down,
If you felt I didn’t care,
Try to listen through my words
To the feelings that we share.

–By Ruth Bebermeyer
(Marshall Rosenberg Nonviolent Communications 2003)

John 1, 22 So they said to him, 'Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?'