|
Fundamental but, maybe neither of you should forget what happened so
the memory will serve as a lesson not to repeat the past.
Secondly ...your comment about being a great communicator, well you
probably are, but is your mate a good listener?
I will go back and read your basenote. The first time I read it I
thought it was something you did to your mate, not the other way
around.
_da
|
| Just a little bit of personal experience and some thoughts.
Whatever it was that happened 10 years ago (your fault, his fault,
nobodies fault) has happend. It's history and you can't change it no
matter how much either of you dwell on it. What you need to do rather
then forget it, is see if either of you LEARNED from it. Have you both
changed so it won't happen again? Or will it become a recurring
problem now that you're trying to build a new future.
Forgive and Forget is a lousy phrase. First of all memory isn't
selective. Secondly if it was something that hurt or bothered you,
you shouldn't forget it. You should remember it, and the experiences
invovled so you can be forwarned if it starts to happen again. That's
why we have memory in the first place. So we can remember the things
that hurt us or make us feel good and correct things appropriatly when
we start to go down the same roads again.
Who was right and who was wrong doesn't matter, not 10 years after the
fact. What matters is if you both learned enough during the 10 years
to keep the situations from happening again. If so, then the forgiving
is a lot easier to do, and for the most part you won't dwell on the
memories of the past unless they pop up as a warning about things that
are happening so you can prevent the mistakes from happening again.
So, rather then discuss the how's and why's of what happened and who
did what to whom. Discuss the problem with an attempt to see if it
can happen again, after all isn't THAT what's most important? Weather
or not the problem will happen again?
Skip
|
|
Cin,
A couple of things that have worked for me and my wife
of 15 years....
We never try to resolve anything that happened in the past,
even if it was a couple of days ago. At least for us, trying
to resolve something equates with assigning blame. Besides,
we've also found that during arguments, winning isn't.
So we simply try to express how we feel as honestly as we can,
and drop it.
Also, we long ago gave up "expecting" anything from the other.
I notice that you mentioned that you expect him to know
your thoughts (or something like that). We've found that to be
a recipe for disaster, at least for us. Hell, we sometimes
misinterpret the spoken word, let alone mind reading.
Anyhow, those were a couple of thoughts I had while reading
your notes. I hope it works out for you both.
Best wishes
Hank
|