Someone asks you a question.  Not a quick yes or no question, but a question that will guarantee a fairly substantial conversation will immediately follow.  You begin to answer and instead of engaging in the conversation, they answer with a “uh huh” and change the topic.  Woah!  What happened?!  Was it something I said?  You asked!  Don’t ask if you really don’t give a shit.  Sigh.  See – I know at this point, I know you didn’t hear what I had to say.  And I find that incredibly disheartening.  I could have spoken up – called you on the fact that you tuned me out, but I let it go.  Too tired.

Today, I’ve been busting butt at work.  It’s lunch, and rather than spend 20 minutes surfing facebook while I eat, I thought I’d write to you all.

I find it interesting, the amount of barriers we, as humans, are constantly having to face.  Whether it’s traffic jams on the way to work, a boss you have to convince to fund a project, an angry customer you have to work with, or a two year old you have to convince to go to bed.  The barriers can be large or small, but I’d bet you’d find a pattern in the type of barriers we consistently find ourselves facing.  Mine involve communication.  Learning to speak up when I need to and shut up when I don’t.  I haven’t mastered it yet… probably never will.  But I’ll keep swimming all the same.

Just keep swimming.