Words Matter, But Actions Speak

The Wood Snake: Shedding, Awakening, Returning to Truth

This is my Return Year.

In Chinese tradition, when you reach 60 years, you complete one full cycle of the zodiac—a běn mìng nián, or Return Year. It’s not just a birthday; it’s a coming home to yourself. I was born in the year of the Wood Snake, a symbol of wisdom, quiet strength, and transformation. And in true snake fashion, I’m in the process of shedding old skins.

This clarity has helped me name what I’ve always known: words carry power. In my work—rooted in equity and communication—this is no small thing. Most of us have access to 20,000 words or more. We combine them to speak love, neutrality, or harm. And sometimes, we use them to sound elegant while cloaking harm in velvet.

Words are tools. But the weight they carry comes from intention—and more importantly, from action.

I’ve seen words open doors. I’ve seen language create space for healing, for justice, for repair. Think of Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem, or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail—artfully composed, morally clear, and followed by courageous action.

Now contrast that with a different kind of wordplay. In the days leading up to January 6, 2021, Donald Trump told a crowd, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” He wrapped those words in patriotic language, but the intent was to incite—and it did. His elegant-sounding calls to “Save America” were double-edged: beneath the banner of democracy, they seeded insurrection.

This is why the “how” of language must never outpace the “why.”

Even neutrality can be its own kind of harm. I’ve sat in rooms where leaders use words like “complicated” or “not the right time” to avoid taking a stand. These are not violent words, but they are slippery. They stall progress under the guise of prudence.

We’re seeing this again in the ongoing backlash to DEI. Since the new administration took office, there’s been a wave of restrictions—words being banned, funding cut, and frameworks dismantled. (At last count, more than two dozen words and phrases have been flagged or forbidden in some government and institutional settings.) This isn’t just semantic—it’s a signal of intent. An attempt to strip legitimacy from the work by erasing its language. But DEI has always been a terrain where words shift—sometimes celebrated, sometimes demonized. What doesn’t change is the work itself. And when the intention behind the work isn’t authentic, the outcomes aren’t either. Inclusion doesn’t come from branding. It comes from how people feel and what people do.

In this Return Year, I’m choosing to tell the truth—not just in what I say, but in how I live and act. I want to work with others who share the same goals. Those who use their words to extend dignity and their actions to build trust. Those who know that vocabulary can uplift, and it can gaslight. And that which follows the words is the truest test.

So yes—words matter. They are the seeds. But it is the fruit that tells us what kind of tree we’ve planted.