Words Are The Most Powerful Thing In The Universe! – Senior Living Insights

February 21, 2009

Words are the most powerful thing in the universe.

Senior Living Insights By Ruby MacDonald
WORDS ARE POWERFUL. How we use them is most important. Positive words are powerful enough to bring healing. Negative words have the power to kill our spirit as illustrated in a newspaper article which clearly demonstrates how powerful and healing just a few simple words can be. After you’ve read this column perhaps, you’ll be moved to say some healing words to someone who waits, hoping to hear them.

Maybe you read the article in the Contra Costa Times on July 3, 2002; the headlines read: WOMAN RELIEVED TO HEAR SON’S KILLER APOLOGIZE. There was also a photo of Liz Kiepert—smiling!

You may remember back to 1998 when  an 11-year-old boy shot and killed Larry Kiepert, a 13 year old neighbor boy who was playing basketball in his own yard.  The eleven year old served four years for voluntary manslaughter.. This week when he attended his parole hearing, so did Liz Kiepert, the mother of the boy who was killed.

According to the news article written by Contra Costa Times Staff Writer, Celeste Ward,  Liz Kiepert  had suffered depression, anxiety, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder after she watched her son be shot to death. She had said she wished the boy would have to serve the entire 14-year sentence and she did not understand how he could be rehabilitated when her family was still torn apart.

As the hearing date approached, Liz Kiepert wasn’t sure she wanted to be there. Two doctors had advised her against it but she needed to be there to vindicate her son. She went alone.  What occurred at the hearing is the best thing that could have happened, short of bringing her son back to life.

Moments before his release, the now 15 year-old boy had something to say. Liz says, “He turned around to face me and at first was mumbling. He said, ‘Mrs. Kiepert, if there was anything I could do differently, I would. I wish I could bring Larry back.’ Then he started to cry, and I asked the judge if I could hug him. That came out of my heart. When I saw him crying, I thought, ‘He’s a child.’ I hugged him 10 to 20 seconds and he kept whispering in my ear, ‘I’m so sorry.’  I told him Larry would forgive him, and to go make a good life for himself. I had the whole courtroom in tears.”

Liz Kiepert felt the years of bitterness and anger melt away as the judge released the boy. She said, “It was a relief. He said what I wanted to hear all these years. I felt like a weight was taken off my shoulders. Now I can go forward.” Liz Kiepert has returned to work after a long absence. A photo accompanying the newspaper article showed Liz smiling. Her family and friends said they noticed a difference in her in that the anguished look she had carried was gone. Finally, the weight had been lifted.

The weight of holding resentment and not being able to forgive is perhaps one of the most destructive emotions we can cling to. Even when we feel it is justified, the end result is the damage it does to our bodies and minds. We always have a choice, just as Liz Kiepert had. She chose to forgive and free both herself and the young man who still has a life to live.

WORDS. Just a few simple but meaningful words have put a smile back on Liz’s face and life back into her spirit.  As you’ve seen, words are powerful.