I had lunch with my good friend Michelle yesterday. She is certainly someone I would call a fellow traveler. We both are struggling along to become the best people we know how to be. Which, in my case anyways, is quite a bit less than perfect.Over a cup of tea and garlic/chicken nachos (disgusting-eh?) she said she had to say something to me, get it off her chest, clear the air. She was slightly misty eyed so I prepared to hear another of my occasional transgressions... which it was. I had hurt her with what I thought was an unimportant comment. But it didn't matter what I felt about the comment- it had hurt her to the quick. She felt judged.
What to do? #1- Apologize. #2- Explain.
But the explanation didn't involve any minimizing of the intent of the comment. I took full ownership of it, but tried to explain the state I was in at the time. I was in a bad place. My comment reflected what I would have so harshly said to myself in similar (but not quite) circumstances.
And I am also relearning that each person's experience is unique and trying to extrapolate from my own experience and apply to an other's just plain, old doesn't work. Along with the lesson that words can be very, very powerful.
And then Michelle tried to explain away her tears. "You think too much, I feel too much." She is right- again.
Henry & Charlie making nice.
1 comment:
Psshaw....it was the garlic making my eyes misty. And it is due to the closeness of our friendship that I feel secure enough to tell you how I feel.(I don't even tell my mother when she hurts my feelings, but that is a whole other story!)
Its all good.
Breaking in my hiking boots!!!
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