The "Butterfly Effect"

Words. I love words. I have loved words since the day I could utter them. When I write, I control the story, I control the circumstance. I’m rewriting my memories, entangled in my imagination, the core of our creations.

If you asked me what my favorite thing about this world is, I’d say words. It’s overwhelming to think that you can utter the names and lives of 8 billion people on earth in a single prayer for humanity. That sometimes, simple words can be the reason someone decides to keep living. That hearing the words I love you in all the 1000 or so spoken languages that have been discovered on this earth can conjure feelings of warmth and release the neurotransmitter dopamine in our brains, helping us feel happy, joyous and safe.

Through words people’s lives are saved. Confidence is built and iniquity is washed away. Wars are resolved when letters of peace are drafted. When mediation takes place. Resolutions are formed when we choose to speak the right words.

Maybe I could heal a broken heart, through words practiced in kindness. We could fight the dominance of serotonin cells in depressed people with the utterance of a loved ones worth.

“You mean the world to me.” Is basically the same as saying this worlds vastness and complicated soiree of beauty, even in the state of things that are completely mind boggling, doesn’t even begin to compare to the way I see you. To the worth I’ve given you.

Forgiveness is an act of the will, embedded in love and free choice. It’s wrapped in words of comfort and reassurance. Washing away feelings of heaviness and chains of judgement holding each other down.

When I sing my favorite songs, their words bring meaning to my addiction. Words complement the melodies in which they reside in, and voila, something beautiful is created.

Words make us laugh. Humor is derived from it. Witty statements and jokes that make us see things in a lighter view. One of my closest friends once told me that rain reminds her of her ex-boyfriend. Feels so good, but is ultimately bad for one’s health.

Words hold power. Power to create or destroy. You’ve had this freedom all along.

This freedom to be a part of what the world likes to call the “butterfly effect".

In theory, the “butterfly effect” is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in what state of a deterministic system can result in large differences in a later state.

Yes, initially the idea coined by Edward Lorenz was based on the study of the characteristics of a tornado, suggesting that a tornado's formation in one area can be influenced by the single flap of a butterfly’s wing from even days earlier in a completely different location. The idea that one simple action can have a drastic change on the world, like the single flap of a butterfly’s wing is what this theory basically suggests.

In my mind this means my words could potentially change someone’s life right? And thus my actions have a drastic effect on the world. Changing the course of someone’s life even in the most minute manner, as an animate part of this world could cause the butterfly effect.

Then why is it that I allow my words to hurt others. Manipulate others and control others. Why did I use my words to start wars, wage racism, sexism and indifference to things that do matter. I’m speaking universally.

Why did I cause the butterfly effect, countless times. But in a way that hindered the world.

Words might be beautiful but it’s no secret that they’re destructive. The power they hold is overwhelming to the human mind.

How strange yet oddly beautiful, that more often than not words are empty, spoken in desperation so that someones expectation in us isn't shattered. It's almost like we truly believe it. Or did we know it was a lie all along. But we chose to allow those words to be our truth.

Can my favorite thing about this world be the thing that scares me the most. Can I say this? I am alive today and well, because of the people whose words nurtured me. I was taught about Gods grace because someone asked me the simple question of “How are you so happy, when you shouldn’t be?”. My curiosity in God was created by someone who uttered words of belief in me and how God has amazing plans for each of his kids.

The words I write to the people I love remind them that I value them though sentimentality isn’t my strong suit.

Sometimes we speak someone’s language so clearly, until somethings shift, and I can’t understand your words anymore. I’d create languages that didn’t exist before, just in the hopes of reaching you.

I gave someone the knowledge of her motherhood by telling her that giving birth to a child isn’t what defines a mother, it’s the way she’s nurtured every child as if it was her own that makes her a mother. And I watched it shift her world, and that resulted in the shift of mine. So can kindness ever even truly be altruistic? It does good for your own soul too.

God created words right? The words I read in the bible speak of an undying hope, a faith that can move mountains even if it’s the size of a tiny mustard seed, metaphors of the great leviathan In the sea, and how the same hands that tied the Orion together are the same hands that carry me. I wouldn’t know this if it weren’t for words.

We’re not perfect. To ask for perfection is to dehumanize people. But you decide what you strive for right? What kind of power do we want? The power to save life or to destroy it? What’s my butterfly effect going to be like...