SPEAKING UP

Today a friend, named D, told me a story of how a friend of hers said something to her that was shocking and offensive. D was so surprised that she could not respond. Days later D is telling us this story and she said she was going to stop being friends with this person.  

In the past year I have had two 20 year friendships come to an end. Both came to an end with no explanation. No discussion.  

I told D that I felt this person deserved her telling him that he had offended her. I explained it is horrible to have someone end a friendship and not tell you why or give you a chance to apologize for what you did wrong. 

I have a friend, I will call her C, who I one time said something to and she miss heard me. She got angry at me.  I could not figure out why she was calling me back. I finally left a voicemail saying I apologize if I said or did something to upset you but please tell what it is. She called me back and said I thought you said XYZ and it was so not like you. I said oh, my goodness I would have never said that!!  I thought back to the conversation and realized I may have said something similar and we were on cellphones. It would have been easy to think I said XYZ when I said WXY. We both laughed.  It was a miscommunication.  We made a promise that we would not let a miscommunication get in the way of our friendship again.

I was happy I spoke up today.  Happy Memorial Day!!

Until tomorrow...