Careful with your words.

Yesterday evening, I overhead my neighbour shouting at his wife, "Stupid! How can you do such a thing?"

As I was not peeping and the drama was not unfolding in front of my eyes, i knew not what he was angry about. Frankly, I did not wish to know. However, I could not help overhearing and thinking of his wife's reply to that.

"Yes, I am stupid. How come you only realise it just now. I knew it the day I married you. I was stupid enough to choose a husband like you. Do you know that?"

That was one fantastic returning blow. And it struck home as I could hear nothing further from the silenced husband. She surely can throw a powerful punch when she has to.

See, the husband should have been more careful with his words. True they are only words but words can hurt and hurt real bad.

I know how badly hurt one can be especially when it comes from someone we love. I was once called a busybody by someone I loved very much. I have always cared for the person, did all I could to please her but when I gave what I thought was beneficial to her, She called me a busybody. Maybe, she was annoyed with my advise. Of course, she apologised for that but I was slow in recovery as the blow came when least expected. By the time I was grateful for the apology, it was just too late. The pain remained and much later, it was I who said the wrong negative words. This is one part of my life where I made certain regrettable, unredeemable mistakes.

Thinking back, it is so often that words are thrown at people without much thought into the hurt that it can bring. We are just too careless with our words. We just have to exercise more caution.

Sometimes, it is just a few wrong words that erupt into a quarrel. The quarrel escalates because of more wrong words. The heat becomes unbearable as more bitter words emerge. Then, it is too late to retract as the ego comes into play and nobody wants to back down. And it all began with those few little painful words.

And this is one kind of mistake where it is so difficult to be careful about as words come forth so spontaneously.

Of course, we are told to count to ten or maybe more before saying anything when hot or disturbed but more often than not, it does not work.

However, the best way to face angry words that hammer back is to be silent. Silence is the best move and in the case of my neighbour, by keeping silent he acknowledges his mistake which was the right move. Good for him!