Not my sweater...

 The words you choose are powerful. So are the words of others.

When describing things that are happening to you, I think you need to be careful of "owning" whatever it is. How many times have you heard others refer to "my" cancer, "my" arthritis, "my" divorce ....? Using these words limits who a person is. Any person is more than their most current challenge(s). Any person is way more than their relationships or lack thereof. To go a step further.. any person is way more than an affiliation with a political party or what church they may or may not attend.  Any person is so much more than a bunch of labels. As the days go by, I remind myself not to "own" these heavy things when I catch myself doing so. I am more than my age, what I do, where I live or even whether or not I line my garbage cans or steam my bathroom floors. 

When you link something to you, it is like that something becomes a sweater that you put on sleeve by sleeve and wrap around you. Or perhaps, something that you carefully stow away in the zipper compartment of your purse or wallet and then carry around with you - always - forever. It becomes then a part of who you are and is so much more difficult to push away or at least off to the side -- or even to put on the shelf temporarily. The label limits and defines ... maybe not in good or helpful ways. The label becomes too heavy.

Choose words wisely ... before they define and limit who you are/how you see yourself.  People are more than their problems and labels  ... so much more.  People are also more than the labels that others hang on them for whatever purpose including the divisive, hateful, and/or vindictive. Case in point ...  I have yet to meet a deplorable or semi-fascist and I have encountered and interacted with a lot of people in my day. Those are labels that I refuse to put on myself or anyone ... not my sweater; not yours either.