The Fruit of Silence

Have you ever caught yourself in the middle of an argument with your spouse, not hearing a single word they are saying, just because your mind is busy building the master argument to refute them? Welcome to the club. It is a marriage classic: while the other speaks, we are just reloading ammo.

Listening to our partner has often simply become 'waiting for our turn to speak'. And if we are honest, sometimes we do not even wait our turn and simply interrupt. That quiet pause we make is not empathy; it is just a technical reload before launching our counterattack.

Behind that bad habit is a deeper issue we do not like to admit: pride. Pride is that little defense attorney living in our heads, always desperate to justify us and yell, 'but you did it too!'. It makes us quick to defend ourselves and deaf to understanding the other.