What cannot be said in this room?

What cannot be said in this room?

What cannot be said in this relationship, or room, or house, or workplace, or nation?

To ask this question is to invite the prejudices, the fears, the want to control and dominate..to be evidenced.

It raises the broken and unspoken. The dark and forbidden. The cultural history. Dogma. 

To ask this question is to ask where we might be caught in another’s web, or in our own. Where we fear to speak up in the face of shame, humiliation, violence, or the need to be liked.

In the answer, we might get to consider safety, our own voice as sovereign, The ability to relax and be fully ourselves.

In raising a child my commitment was to ensure that there was nothing that could not be said in our home. The big scary conversations about sex, money, drugs, relationships…and the intimate conversations about insecurity, doubt, confusion, loss. To create the field for all to exist, absent judgement, shame or ridicule.

In creating workplaces, we want there to be space for disagreement, diversity of thought, challenging status quo, offering ideas. We want to enable this to happen with dignity and respect. 

Creating these types of spaces requires thoughtful consideration, held with clear intention. 

It is often not the spoken word that damages, but the silence.

September 4th 2019

Photo taken April 19th, 2015