Better to not eat that Chicken! Day 68

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Recently, in preparation to change my diet and become healthier I decided to get my wet and dry blood analyzed.  http://www.communication-house.com/

It was an adventure I won’t soon forget. The technician I saw, (not the one in the above link) lived about a forty five minutes out of the city.    She emailed me directions because her location didn’t show up on the GPS.   Of course, being that I decided to take a secondary road instead of the main highway, thinking I could get my bearings once I got into town, I got lost.  Well, not hopelessly lost, because I knew where I was, I just could not find her road. 

I called her, and told her where I was, to which she said I should go back to the main highway and cross over the bridge, and then she repeated the directions she sent by email.  Following her directions, I discovered there were actually three bridges.  About thirty minutes later, I reached her home.  Hungry and thirsty because I had to fast before seeing her.  

And somewhat testy, I said, I guess you know I had trouble finding you; maybe it would have been better if you gave me some landscape identifications because there are three bridges that cross over the main highway.  She responded by saying, “It would have been more confusing to do that.”  Huh?  I wanted to say how would identifying the huge mall where I should turn left be misunderstood? But, I said nothing.   

After she pricked my finger to draw the drop of blood neeeded, she asked if I ate meat.  I said, I don’t eat mammals but I do eat chicken occasionally.   Then she said, eyes really wide and in a whisper, almost like it was top secret, “Did you know that chickens don’t have a urinary track?”  That’s interesting I replied.   She continues, “ That is why their breast are considerable bigger than the rest of thier body!”  Implying that the urine is stored there! 

I just bite my tongue, sometimes I just want to say "That is crap!"  Thankfully, my blood analysis is being done by another lab.  And the results were very interesting, but I shall leave it for another blog.  

Hear my Words! Day 25 – 64

In the past 39 days I’ve been talking, listening and biting my tongue, but not necessarily in that order. The biggest obstacle for me is to stop and breath before speaking. Sometimes, emotions tend to ignite the tongue and I end up saying something that is judgmental.

However, sometimes my words are misunderstood. When this happens, more often than not the person I am talking with will hear what I am saying with a negative connotation.

The misunderstandings doesn’t seem to be taken in a positive way, why is that? In fact, I never hear anyone say to me, “Are you saying that I’m a really great (fill in the blank)!” or “Are you saying I did a really great job on that project!” When an upset occurs it is normally because the person I am talking to “hears” what I am saying as being critical, unsupportive, and or accusatory. This is not restricted to the spoken word. Sometimes even my emails are misconstrued. It is frustrating to say the least.

Most people won’t come out and say how they are “hearing” what I’m saying. I have look for clues in their behavior. If they appear upset, quite, or dismissive, I know something is wrong. If I want to end the conflict I have to ask, “what is the matter, are you upset?” “Was it something I said?”

Often, what I say is nothing more than exactly what I mean. If I say, you left the juice out on the counter last night. It does not mean, you are careless, wasteful, absentminded. It just means you left the juice on the counter last night. There is no covert underling meaning that is meant to attack, hurt or ridicule.