Select All and Delete

The upper right hand corner of my delete key has a shiny spot on it from where I hit it far too often.   I start a post and then inevitably hit “Select All and Delete”.  Do overs are a good thing.  The clean page feels good to see, but are the words I deleted still there?  Do the letters leave an electronic imprint out in cyber world somewhere?

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Wouldn’t it be convenient to have a delete key in your pocket to use when you say something you shouldn’t?  Just press the key and poof, gone, vanished forever, the words would be erased. Wouldn’t life be so much easier?  If you say something short and ugly just hit  “delete”. Unfortunately that’s not the case and sometimes we say things we wish we could take back. 

However, life doesn’t have a delete key.  Those words stay out there on that person’s heart and yes, sometimes they sting.  Perhaps an apology will help the hurt or a hug will soften the harshness, but those words are out there and fall from our lips and we have to own them.  We can’t just hit the delete key and start over.  It isn’t that simple.

I have said things in a tone I shouldn’t have.  The words stung and I’ve apologized for them, but it can’t always take the sting away and I know that.   I have to own my tone and words and hope that time will fade them and through kind words and a soft tone of my future words, I hope the unkindness will become less painful and fade.  How I wish I could “Select All and Delete” some days.