Intentions

I know that most people have good intentions, and I try to take that into account. Even if you have good intentions, you are still responsible for you words and actions. You don’t get to say, “Hey – my intentions were good, so you should ignore the fact that I just said something really rude to you.”

I guess that I am just becoming weary of trying to put myself out there in a vulnerable state, only to have people I thought were my friends say things to me without thinking about how it is going to sound. And that makes me a little less likely to put my vulnerable self out there.

Yes, I can and do take into consideration that they may not have meant what they actually said or implied. But at some point, usually when I am not at my best, I admit to this thought: when is it someone else’s turn to take my feelings into consideration and pay attention to what they are saying?

I know that we can all look back at times when we said something inartfully and wish we hadn’t. And I truly do not want to keep people from saying what they have to say. But could I please request that we all think before we speak.  I promise to continue to take people’s intentions into account, but it would be nice if I didn’t have to so often.