Shrivel Until Death

"When people don't express themselves,

they die one piece at a time."

Laurie Halse Anderson

My once mother-in-law  (a woman I greatly loved and admired) was on one end of the phone trying to provoke her grandson into talking with her.  My child was shy and really never was a talker, but I was trying to force him to please say something to his 'Granny'.  Finally, he sighed and stated, "Our neighbors house burned down."  This of course was not true, but our pressure forced him to speak.

There are individuals who can talk all day long, but never really express what is inside of them.  There are those who choose words based on what they think you want to hear, but not having any relevance to his or her self.  In life, there are both men and women who choose not to talk at all as a result of having a speech impairment or have been ridiculed or abused in life.

I have journaled for years, so whether dainty or harsh, my words flow upon a page uncensored.  This is not to say that I have never experienced silence as a form of communication which does indeed speed the internal death of emotion.  Loss of expression stifles a sense of living and our inner sources shrivel until death.