I just read a great quote from Douglas Jerrard. “The ‘last word’ is the most dangerous of infernal machines, and the husband and wife should no more fight to get it than they would struggle for possession of a lighted bombshell.”
It’s so jolly easy to want to make sure we have the ‘last word’ – whether it’s simply about what colour to paint the house, or on more serious issues.
We are at the stage of choosing a colour for the limewash for the external walls. The whole family went in to the paint shop, and I very quickly realised that it’s times like that when you know you have a big family – when they all start to give their very definite opinion! Oh boy. I felt very much like I needed to have the ‘last word’. But I know that we all want desperately to be ‘heard’. Someone said, “Being heard is so close to feeling loved, that it’s very hard to tell the difference.”
We need to listen, and then listen and then listen some more.