Mountains And Molehills

I wonder if we curse ourselves with misunderstanding when the only real language barrier is how far we're willing to go to understand one another.

I don't think you should have to stretch yourself out to meet someone on their side of the line of understanding, just as they shouldn't try and drag you to their side just to make you see their point of view. We should be able to meet in the middle and hear each others truths without having to yell from opposite sides or contort ourselves just to hear what they're saying. And even when you have an understanding with someone, sometimes the truth is a double edged sword and what they say might not line up with how the story goes in your head. There are so many points of view to every story and I don't know if we can ever fully understand all sides of something because no matter how much we work at it I think there will always be some part of our vision that's blurred by the way we think about things.

I think there's a sweet middle ground we can find by being willing to listen to the way someone else's heart breaks and not judging them for it. I wonder if one day we'll be selfless enough to validate someone and their feelings just because they have them and not base our reactions on how that makes us feel. Especially when they hurt us. At what point do we decide that one feeling isn't as worthy as another, inside ourselves and outside in other people. I wonder how our personal emotions started to become hinged on everyone around us when the only thing in this life you can truly control is how you react to the things that happen around you.  

Where did the language barrier come from? Why is it so hard to understand each other and if we can't  easily understand then why is it so hard to simply listen and hear what someone else has to say? Did it start within you, when you first thought that thing you felt was silly, unworthy, unimportant? When you thought no one else would care, so you kept your mouth shut. Maybe it wasn't as important as something else that was going on and then it just kept going on and on and on. I sometimes get lost in the thoughts I have and forget that everyone at sometime or another has the same ones as me. We tell ourselves no one understands and we're alone but if we would only open our mouths and speak we could be heard, and then understood. Or maybe we need to learn that some days it has to be good enough just to look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself all you wish someone else would. Maybe it has to start with you validating yourself and your feelings to tell someone else who cares about you how you feel.  

It's not easy to be open with people sometimes but lately I've been learning that it's not always so bad. I realized that while I have been more truthful lately I've been leaving out the most important part of the story. I always find some little lie to fill in the blanks and I realized that this is where it started. How I started to think that if I was still telling at least a little bit of truth it was okay.

Maybe this is just more proof that everything big once started out as small.