I know that robins, like almost all creatures including humans, do not read the Diary of the Worm. However, after my post last night, Robin Hood, I noticed a significant increase in robins in the gardens around the house. Naturally it probably was my moving around and watering worm-enriched soil that drew all the robins.

A word, like a worm, is cheap. Robins might value a worm as we value a word, but by themselves they have little value. However, words put together in a good order, like worms working together are more valuable. However it is only when words turn to action and worms turn compost to castings that the real value of words and worms is achieved.

The President of the United States, by all accounts, gave an excellent speech today in Egypt to the Muslim world. He said all the right things that Muslims all over the world wanted to hear. However how he and the USA deal with Israeli settlements in Palestine, the never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Pakistan by USA drone missiles will determine how the President is remembered in the Muslim world.

Actions always speak louder than words. When I was a youth minister I noticed that youth did not always follow the words of their parents but most of the time they did follow the action of their parents.

Silence gives a chance to reflect on our experiences and understand them. Noise, more common these days, helps us avoid awareness of our actions. So like a healthy soil needs worms, we need words. But words or worms without action is like an “empty sounding symbol.”

St. Ignatius of Loyola tells us that real love is expressed in deeds (action) not words. And St. Paul in the bible says: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1)

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