25 Words

 

 

Blogger Liz Strauss has invited her readers to participate in an intriguing challenge: Put 25 words of advice or wisdom in a blog post. Having just come off a challenge to write 50 thousand words, I thought I could manage twenty-five. Twenty-five words is easy.

Smoothing her skirt and straightening her shoulders, the young woman faced the door to the boardroom, took hold of the knob, and entered with confidence.

To her surprise, the room erupted with applause: clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.

See? Easy.

But twenty-five words with meaning? That’s the challenge. Liz’s own offerings ring true, like insightful poetry. So I found myself pondering the subject for days, wondering what I could say.

Today, reading others’ creations, it came to me how much they resemble Twitter posts. And that reminded me of a moment of enlightenment I recently experienced—which I Twittered. I looked it up, added three words, and here it is:

It’s not enough to have, you also need to hold.
Whether love, talents, or possessions—
Love must be enjoyed,
Talents and possessions used.
Take action.

 

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© 2008 Christine Taylor