Recently I had an argument with someone and we had to work through it. I was reminded again of just how difficult it can be to make good relationships work sometimes. It's hard to sit down and talk with someone, especially when you're angry or hurt and really don't feel like it. But I think it's so much better than just deciding not to talk to the person again, or walking away from the relationship.
After our discussion (which went very well and made our relationship that much better), I was reminded of this quote by Emile Zola:
If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.~ Emile Zola
Zola is talking about "the truth" here, and what I don't think people realize is that truth also reflects the way we feel about something. If we say "no big deal" when it is a big deal, that just means that somewhere down the line, this little white lie we told (in the interest of "good friendship") will come bubbling up along with a new irritation, which will make it that much more difficult to get the conflict under control. It's so much easier (in the long run) to tackle something right when it happens than to try and pretend it wasn't an issue.
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