Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Looking out the back window on the garage door this morning. Looks like fall. Getting cold, you can feel winter is coming. I was playing with Gizmo the other day, throwing him a ball and saying “get it, get it, get it!”, all excited and stuff, and I started thinking about inflections, language and instinct. Language has always kind of interested me, I should see if there’s any good books on the evolution of language – I’m sure there must be. Anyway, try to think about what it was like to communicate before there was language. A dog doesn’t really have language – but he understands “get it, get it, get it!”. And “what a good boy”. And “bad dog!”. How? Is it the words, or the inflections? He kinda knows his name I think. He certainly has a personality. An awesome personality. And we communicate with him every day. I tell him every day, many times, what a good boy he is. Hopefully we all do that with our pets. How often do we do it with each other, though? Maybe not as much as we should. And, what is our tone like when we speak to each other? Man, this is a tough one for me because I catch myself all the time with questionable tone, especially on a hectic day, or period of the day. The same sentence can be said with inflections that will have very different consequence to the ears that hear it. Even a one word sentence, like answering the question “can you take the garbage out?”… “sure” can be said many different ways, conveying a different message every time. And it’s kinda interesting to me that even with so many different languages, for the most part – the inflections are similar depending on the emotions behind it. You don’t need to know Russian to understand when two Russians are arguing, or in love, or being silly… you can feel it. And then there’s instinct. Our “gut” feelings. Sometimes called “following your heart”. An inner feeling about a person or a circumstance before you really even have much, if any information sometimes. We’ve all had those amazing people, places or things that just fell into our lap and we knew right out of the gate it was someone we liked, or something we had to do – just by the strong internal guidance we received. And vice/versa – ever met someone and just not liked them at all right out of the gate? Felt bad about a deal, even as you were doing it? Ignored your inner guidance? Instinct can be a funny thing, because it’s not always so easy to “follow your heart”. I think you actually have to work on it to get the proper guidance. Not always so easy to tell what guidance is instinct, and what is desire. The more time spent in silence with God, the better you get at knowing the difference. And start to notice the way you talk to people, and maybe even the way they talk to you as well. What are your inflections saying? What are you receiving back? Sometimes what we see coming back is a mirror of what we’re putting out. As individuals, and as a society really. What’s being put out these days? Lots of anger. Have you ever been angry with yourself over something you did or said? It has a terrible effect on the inner workings of the mind. It’s why organizations should to be focused on having people that work from the right mindset, with integrity, and dump the cancerous employees that can poison a workforce. But start to really watch how you speak to the people in your life. What are your inflections saying within the words you speak? Sometimes they have more meaning than the words themselves. You’re an awesome person. Would you like this ball?… get it, get it, get it!… good boy/girl… 🙂
