On Communication and Relationships

Join with me in expressing my frustration at the difficulty of interacting with human beings.

  AAAAAGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, I feel much better now. :) 

I love people. I always have, I think. I'm a people watcher. I'm the girl who sits in the airport and watches all of the people pass, trying to pick out their story by what they wear, the way they walk, and the language they speak. I love books because of the characters not the plot. I am fascinated by trying to fully understand why we do what we do. I spend hours upon hours trying to untangle and sort through my tangled mess of thoughts and emotions. To some lesser degree, I do the same to others. 

As I've observed people, I've learned a couple of things. #1- People are people, wherever you are, and they are very complex. We like to put things in boxes. We like to define, to explain, to hold onto an idea with both hands of our brain. People don't like to fit in boxes. You can't choose to characterize a person by one trait. They are so much more than that, and without everything all together, they wouldn't really be them. But people are people everywhere. Isn't that great? Despite cultural differences, language barriers, lifestyle canyons, and different worldview glasses we have much in common simply because we live on earth, feel the same emotions, deal with the same basic struggles of life, and laugh at jokes. 

But #2, no matter how hard you try, there will be people that you can't really understand. There are many days when I cannot even begin to fathom what my sisters are thinking. I know them well, very well, but we are so different that even after all of these years I still cannot always see where they are coming from. So I guess we just gotta love those people, right? 

Complicated people make complicated relationships. Assumptions, miscommunication, misunderstanding, and circumstances beat any relationship mercilessly. How much harder it is over and across an ocean. It's so easy to feel the life across the pond drifting away. It's so easy to put the relationships that you have to work at on "pause". But life doesn't have a pause button. People grow, people change, people don't pause. 

So, we've just gotta love 'em. Oh, it's hard, yes. It's hard when they can't be there to hug you, to poke you, to listen to you. It can hard when they are there. People are complicated but so, so worth it. They have so many layers that make up a truly interesting individual. If there was one thing that I could give to the entire world, I think it would be the most meaningful, heart-to-heart conversations. The ones where you listen, hug, and understand. The ones where you share, open-up, and risk being vulnerable to strengthen someone else. The ones where God leaves his fingerprint all over the entire thing.

Here's to trying to give that gift to our own people.

-Kae-