Del Dicho Al Hecho Hay Mucho Trecho

From Spoken Word To Action There Is A Great Distance

Why?  Because it is easier to make empty promises sometimes than it is to actually recognize what we are doing wrong.  If nothing else, it takes much less time and energy to say what we think others want to hear, instead of what we really want to say to them.  How many a heated arguments could not have been avoided were we just to let our guard down and our pride to one side?

There is something about the idea of being right that makes us resort to the most childish of behaviors, often the very one even our own parents who gave life to us could not stand, because when it is all said and done, what we really care about is being able to say I told you so!  Hard as we may want to avoid this sentiment or claim that we are too mature to engage in this behavior, the reality is when our blood begins to boil, our brows can no longer furrow, and our eyes are done with the rolling, we no longer care about rhyme or reason.  All we want to do is get the last word in.  Be it with a spouse, a sibling, a friend, a coworker, or anybody else, it doesn’t matter.

I am guilty as sin of acting like a five year old all the time, even despite the fact that my 31st birthday is just around the corner.  In less than two weeks to be exact.  Yet even I can recognize that words mean nothing when they are followed by inaction.  

The thing we should remember, though, is that like the little boy who cried wolf, eventually our empty promises become just hot air, and what’s worse, they then begin to fall on deaf ears.  Deaf ears that belong to the people we care about, the people we love, and before we know it situations change, our loved ones make decisions without us, and relationships are scorned.  There is also no feeling quite worse than the guilt of knowing we could have done something to prevent a good relationship going awry.  It’s not always about being right.  Sometimes it’s just about following through, or at least genuinely making an effort to do so.