Member-only story
Are you tiptoeing around someone?
Walking on eggshells, tiptoeing, fearful of saying the wrong thing.
Conversations are disjointed and stunted, as you side swipe topics that might inflame.
It’s a dance akin to a boxing match; uppercutting, undercutting, ducking, and swerving.
Is this you?
Your words exposed and thrashed like a jilted lover, as soon as they touch your lips.
You make all attempts to retrieve the words, glossing them over.
Watching for further signs of disapproval.
Is this you?
Back peddling as fast as you can, bumping into walls along the way.
It’s an exhausting, painful dance having to censor your words.
Your words no longer fluid, they cling to the sides of your throat.
Words with nowhere to go; forward is treacherous, backwards is not possible.
Building up like a beaver’s dam, only allowing the benign words to get through.
You know the ones; the ones that strokes their ego, keeps their mutinous retort at bay.
Perhaps you stop talking, listening instead, without truly hearing, it’s safer here.
Inside you seethe; a pressure cooker of feelings is about to erupt.
“Let the steam out, why don’t you”, you scream!
What steam, how much steam, you wonder?
What am I allowed to say?
You are betwixt and between.
Is this you?
It’s an exhausting and endless dance, tiptoeing, if the other person is oblivious.
Defensiveness is rife in all of us, that is for certain, but those who cannot see and are unwilling to hear, are the lost souls.
They spew insecurity and ignorance; “no offence”, they say.
“No offence taken, thank you”, as you step away.
Feet now firmly on the ground, to retrieve your precious voice, salvage you who you are.
Speak your truth.
Would you like to know more about me?
