Speak Words That Do Not Burn
When a person is born, an axe is born in the mouth. The fool, speaking harsh words, cuts himself with that very axe.
The harsh word I spoke today — whom did it cut the deepest, in the end?
📝Reflection
The image of an axe in the mouth is cruelly precise. We cut others with words, but the handle of that blade is always in our own hand. A harsh word seems to wound the other, yet the first and longest to be cut is the one who spoke it. Relationships collapse, trust breaks, and the scene returns each night to torment us. What makes this verse fearsome is that the axe is in the mouth "from birth." Everyone carries it. The fool swings it; the wise draw the blade inward. Silence is sometimes the act of sheathing the sharpest axe.
🌱Apply It Today
When a harsh word reaches the tip of your tongue today, recall once: "whom will this axe cut first?" That single beat sheathes the blade.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
