Careful The Things You Say

Has anyone ever told you something and then completely deny it later on when it happens to come up in a future conversation? It's the most annoying thing, to say the least. I usually do not make it an issue. I just try to convince myself that I probably misheard and shrug it off. But there are instances when no matter how much I tell myself that I probably heard wrong, the things said were stuff I never would have known if it wasn't told to me, or the empathy and frustration I felt was so strong that even if I can't exactly recall word-for-word what was said, I remember the emotion it evoked in me. There was simply no way my reaction was in error, especially when the empathy I showed was much appreciated by the "storyteller".

"People might forget what you said, people might forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

When I read that quote from Maya Angelou, it just hit home. I realized that your ears and mind may fail you sometimes, but body memory will not. Our body remembers its reactions to all situations. When similar situations arise in the future, you get this gut feeling. Some call it instinct, some call it intuition.

It bothers me when people take me for a fool and deny flat to my face whatever they told me earlier. Yes, sometimes I do mishear things, but there are times I am certain. What's wrong with just admitting that what was said before was inaccurate? I actually would respect that more.

If you're one of those who are in the habit of saying suff and denying it later on, people are not as dense as you think they are. Sometimes they just choose to be non-confrontational. It doesn't gain you any respect though by hoping to make them feel that they've just lost their faculties. The only thing that was lost was probably their trust in you.