Have you ever wanted to grab words, that have spilled out of your mouth, and pull them back. Make the said, unsaid? I was chatting with a woman who had told me only a few minutes before that she wasn’t looking forward to the holidays this year because times were tight. She had managed to get things for her kids but every penny she spent in one place had to be carefully cut out from another. She was tired.
But we had left that conversation and had moved on to another, I was talking about Ruby and Sadie and how they have changed the holiday season for us. We’ve always loved it, but it’s even more exciting with tyrannical elves on shelves and plates of cookies for Santa. It’s a great season.
Then, in excitement I began talking about the gift we picked up for the kids, for the first time the parents don’t know what it is, the girls don’t know what it is and it’s a gift that both Joe and I think is very cool. I talked about how hard it was to find, how we tracked one down and how we snatched it up.
While the gift isn’t outrageously priced, it’s not cheap either.
As I’m talking I’m actually really hearing the earlier conversation. About someone who is having difficulty making ends meet over the holidays, who is struggling to get gifts. I had heard the conversation but I hadn’t really HEARD it, it hadn’t sunk deeply enough in my consciousness to have the impact that it should have.
After having listened to her, in my mind, minutes too late, I then, and it was awful, heard me.
I need to listen in the moment.
Not later after I’ve already put my foot in it.
Throughout my quickly finishing up my gift chat and moving on to something else, she was kind and let me change the subject.
May one day my mouth and mind be subject to my ears.
