One would think that the Golden Rule was widely known. And that people would manage (especially as adults) to remember the impact of their words.
Not so much.
It has been one of those weeks. Monday I had one of those conversations with a co-worker that started out OK but turned into a big sore spot. I finally had to tell her "you know, I just have to tell you that that hurts." She didn't get it. She went on to say something else that led me to say "I'm happy for you but I'm going to have to say again, that kind of hurts. Maybe we should just stop there."
I am certain that she didn't mean to hurt my feelings. But she also hadn't really thought about what she was saying to me. If she had, surely she would have realized her words.
And then I had a rough lunch with co-workers where some comments were made (a bit pointedly and I'm not sure it was an innocent mis-choice of words) by someone who is definitely old enough to understand the impact of the words.
But it serves as a great reminder to me to be careful what I say too. Sometimes criticism is necessary so we measure our words to soften the blow. It seems that it's the more casual conversation that leads to hurt feelings because of misunderstandings or simple carelessness in word choices.
I was left feeling pretty lousy because of my co-workers comments. Lousy way to start a week. But the sun will shine every day this week and we have beautiful spring days. So I force myself to adopt the "onward and upwards" mindset for the week.
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