photo #3272975

A woman repeated a tale on another woman, and it brought that other woman misery and agony. It was found later that the tale was not true, and the woman who bore it and scattered it abroad went to a sage and asked, "What shall I do?" The sage said, "Take a pillow of feathers and scatter them over the town." So she took a pillow of feathers and scattered them up and down the streets of the city, and came back to the sage and asked, "Now what shall I do?" The sage said, "Go gather them all up again." She replied, "The wind has blown them all over! I could never find them all again." And the sage said, "Nor can you ever gather back all of the words you said." Once we say it, we cannot pull it back. We cannot unsay it, nor can we make atonement for the harm that it does when we use our tongue and words to hurt and not to bless.