Today's Daily Lesson: Day 30: Thank You

That’s all, folks! Here we are together at the end of Clean Speech Colorado Volume 5: Words of Greatness.

For the past five years, we have delved into the principles and practices of Jewish mindful speech, and the Clean Speech Team would like to share a little bit of our experience.

We can tell you that we’ve been able to put a lot of these ideas and techniques into practice. We feel like we say less lashon hara, or harmful gossip, than before, and are more likely to avoid onas devarim, or offensive words. We’ve taken advantage of more opportunities to speak with shalom, with ahavas chesed, and with kavod—with peace, with love and kindness, and with honor and respect. The past five campaigns have gotten into our kishkes and changed the way we speak.

At the same time, we freely admit that we’re far from perfect. We still make mistakes, mishandle conversations, and say things we regret. There’s so much more to learn, and a lot further to go in improving our speech habits.

We can tell you this: The more we work on it, the happier we feel, and the more we enjoy the company of others.

Judaism has always placed a great deal of emphasis on building community. To create successful connections with each other, we must improve the way we speak. 

We want to leave you with three final thoughts.

First of all, we want to thank each and every person who has participated in and contributed to the Clean Speech campaigns, in Colorado and around the world. You are genuine changemakers, and you are bringing the ultimate vision to fruition.

Second, we implore you not to let go or stop working on improving your speech. In this regard and so many others, life is a down escalator. If you’re not hustling to get up, you are guaranteed to sink to the bottom. We can’t let that happen.

Finally, we want to offer a blessing to all of us, that we continue to find inspiration and energy to progress more and more, and to achieve the peaceful, unified, and respectful world that we so desire, one word at a time.

The Clean Speech Team

Try this today:

Decide right now what you’ll do next to keep sharpening your skills of communication: review one of the five volumes of Clean Speech Colorado, sign up for a class or workshop, or study one of the many other great resources on Jewish mindful speech.