Cheeto and I had our serene Story Shack time interrupted this morning. By crying and shouting. We had left the front door open to listen to the rain and heard, instead, a young couple next door having an emotional “discussion” in their driveway. She left. He left. I’m hoping they ended up at the same place and made up. The whole thing made me sad.
Dave and I rarely blow up at each other. We have our disagreements (“I know it’s annoying to have cat food in three rooms of our house, but Cheeto likes options”), but we rarely have those major upheavals any more, the kind with lots of crying, where you’re not talking to each other and end up feeling exhausted and drained once it’s over. I guess we’ve been through too much together to put each other through that.
I have no idea what those young people next door were fighting about. Maybe it was big. Maybe it was something trivial that got blown way out of proportion. Either way, I think some of the most hurtful episodes between two people—whether they’re friends, spouses, siblings, whatever—come when we just aren’t hearing each other, when we aren’t working hard enough to understand the other person. It’s like that wonderful scene in To Kill A Mockingbird where Atticus advises Scout to climb into someone’s skin and “walk around in it” before passing judgment.
We need to talk to each other. Listen to each other. Feel for each other. Walk around in each other’s skin. Peace and understanding to you this Sunday morning.
[Image by Chance Agrella @ Freerangestock.com]