I have always been told my obsession with words is wrong.  Weird.  Hurtful.  A waste.  Stupid.  Every time I've tried to share something that made me tremble, the eyes turned glazed and the conversation screeched.

But words have taught me everything.

"You have to learn to get up from the table when love is no longer being served" N. Simone

"We are our choices." J.P. Sartre

"Walk your memory's halls, austere supreme" E. Millay

"I want to unfold.  I don't want to stay folded anywhere, because where I am folded, there I am a lie" R. Rilke

"I was more than your echo" M. Atwood

"You will always be too much of something for someone.  Apologize for mistakes.  Apologize for unintentionally hurting someone - profusely.  But don't apologize for being who you are." D. Laporte

"La vida sigue - dicen, pero no siempre es verdad.  A veces la vida no sigue.  A veces solo pasan los dias." P. Neruda

"I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself" D.H. Lawrence

"Does my sexiness upset you?  Does it come as a surprise that I dance like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs?" M. Angelou

"There is always a time for departure even when there is no certain place to go" T. Williams

"You are not a burning building and pain is not the only way to feel alive." S. E.

"You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself any direction you choose." D. Seuss

"Be open to learning new lessons, even if they contradict the lessons you learned yesterday." E. Degeneres

"Thank the Lord for my kids even if nobody else want em" T. Shakur

"Smile and wave boys.  Smile and wave" Skipper

"Listen, Linda" cutest cupcake lover ever

"If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested, they're not values - they're hobbies." J. Stewart

"Yeah" L. Jon

"I love you more than chicken enchiladas...and that's a lot." M. Romero

"When you meet someone for the first time, you're not meeting them- you're meeting they're representative." C. Rock

"You're easy to love." P. Lowry

"If your kid grown enough to talk back, your kid grown enough to get fu$&@d up." B. Mac

"Peanut butter shotgun!" S. Romero

"It's far" C. Holliday

"Good night, mama.  I LOVE you." E. Romero

Words given have taught me so many things.  Words found have filled in the blanks.  And, words withheld have taught more lessons than anything ever found on paper.

And I can't keep trying to explain that to people.  

I won't apologize again for the solitary comfort only found in the stringing together of thoughts.

I've learned too many times how to drown carefully and purposefully.  I cannot tread lightly again.