"Pick a Word, Paint a Story #23"

^{The Echo of Us}

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Echo is so much more than a repetition of a sound- it is a memory, a side effect, a reminder that something has once been there. Echoes are part of our life not just in the form of valleys and canyons but also in how we relate to others and how we act and when we employ our freedom of choice. The image of the echo, both literal and metaphorical, is very human.

Suppose you were on the brink of a precipice, and you called out a name what name--your own for instance. After a second it comes back to you, slightly out of shape, slightly out of reach. You know it, it is not exactly the same. That is how memories operate. They echo. They never come back and appear exactly the same, but they bring along with them enough weight to remind you.

We all mirror each other in as far as human interaction is concerned. The hurt we bring, the love we share, the kindness we are, bounces back in our lives of who we touch. An encouraging word at the end of the day may live in a heart a long time, as a hurting one can follow someone. What we do does not fade to oblivion; it returns to us in the shape of fallout, feelings, and development.

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On the cultural level too echoes are important. Customs that are followed in one generation to another are reminisces of the departed generations. We still carry on with their beliefs, stories and wisdom. A lullaby that sounds in a distant village by a grandmother can reverberate throughout the centuries in case her granddaughter sings that lullaby to put her baby to a slumber. It is the tremulous echoes which make identity.

Echo, in Greek mythology was a nymph who was punished by only being able to repeat the words of others and the reason why this happened was because Echo had been talkative. She turned into the embodiment of unloved love, constantly giving the voice of another person, but never her own voice. Nowadays, a lot of people remain like Echo, they are voiceless and say what is irrelevant to them, in the bustle of the modern world. One of the most powerful things a person can do to discover himself is to connect with his original voice through the noise of everything around.

However, all is not sweet about echoes. Others are painful. The war trauma, the scream of injustice, the silence after saying goodbye, these are some of the things that also resonate. Until they are heard, understood and responded to, they will keep returning: louder and stronger. Injustices that are overlooked in the society are but reverberations that have yet to reverberate, again.

Nevertheless, all is not lost. When it comes to triggers known as Echoes, we are reminded that nothing is ever lost in actions themselves. Each voice is important. Whatever good somebody does comes back. We may not observe the fruit in a moment, but, as sound may do, over long distances, so it returns.

That is, when you speak, live, or love--speak, make live, make love, with intention. And as we put into life in a whisper, so will it reverb to us in a roar.

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