What Do You Have to Say?

Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.

~~ Barbara Kingsolver

Consider that: What we have to say is the one and only thing we have to offer. Maybe that's true; maybe it's not. When we read comments such as this one, written by authors we may admire, our default position is generally to accept it as true, to believe those with famous names truly know something more than we do.

I take exception to the face-value of Kingsolver's statement. Face-value is that what we speak is what we have to offer. Really? Our words are important, that may be true, yet what is even more significant are our actions. What we choose to do, how we choose to express our lives in the world, how we choose to interact with others ~ these are our most vital and vibrant offerings to those around us.

What of our words? Those are important also. I recall an adage I heard in college: "Make your words sweet, for you may be required to eat them." It's not that we speak what others want to hear; it's that we speak our truths respecting that those around us have theirs as well ~ and there may be differences.

What do you think? What is the 'one and only thing you have to offer' those around you?