Words of Praise

How an African tribe deals with crimes.
Author Unknown (Credit-Found via Social Media)

I was recently told of an African tribe that does the most beautiful thing.

When someone does something hurtful and wrong, they take the person to the center of town, and the entire tribe comes and surrounds him. For two days they’ll tell the man every good thing he has ever done.

The tribe believes that every human being comes into the world as GOOD, each of us desiring safety, love, peace, happiness.

But sometimes in the pursuit of those things people make mistakes. The community sees misdeeds as a cry for help.

They band together for the sake of their fellow man to hold him up, to reconnect him with his true Nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth from which he’d temporarily been disconnected: “I AM GOOD”.

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I originally wrote the below for other intents and purposes. However, due to things beyond my control, other paths were taken and this piece was set aside. I didn't, however, want it to be lost.....
 

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Words of Praise

Like many things discovered on the good ol’ World Wide Web, I don’t know if the story is accurate. I imagine, like most things, it’s been embellished upon at some point.

Let’s pretend, for a minute, that it’s all strictly non-fiction. That there really is a community of people so endearing and so compassionate that they truly do nurture each other in such a way.
We really could use a dose of what this tribe offers. At least, I know I could. Many times, our natural instinct is to be critical and harsh- breaking people, and our own selves, down. When what we really should be doing is building one another up.

The reality is, we are the natural man, and we will make mistakes. We will experience weakness, and someone may suffer at the slip of our tongue. But imagine the good we could do. The wrongs we could right, if we practiced a similar ritual- of surrounding each other, in times of need, buoying each other up.

The adage “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” could never be more false and deceiving than it is. Anyone who has ever been cut down by a hurtful word knows those are wounds that scar much deeper than any cut or bruise to our physical self ever could.

Let us rally around one another. Defend each other, with words of praise and uplifting. Speaking only good of, and offering up only praise. Not only to each other, but to ourselves as well. 

Let us rally around ourselves as well. Starting with our own self, we need to be generous with sincere praises and words of uplifting, and then extending those same praises and words to those around us.