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There was this one time when I was at a family function and I noticed that my elder family member was serving me food without asking, and the best thing I could do was to shut my mouth.
We were made to react, to react and solve things, to contribute to the world around us, to defend ourselves. Not talking was seen as a sign of defeat between then and now. We talk and talk and talk about things that we have no reason to talk about. We fight about things we never meant to fight about. We defended our choices to people who had made up their minds that they would never change their minds about the issue at hand. We wasted a whole lot of energy trying to convince people who would never be convinced.
But when you pull away from the situation, you begin to see how things are really set up, who’s putting on a show, who’s really confused, who knows they’re wrong and is waiting for the moment to switch, but will never admit it to your face. When you’re no longer busy putting together your next statement, all of this is revealed to you.
Nobody ever considers how much of themselves they are giving away with all the unnecessary conversations they have with other people. Every moment you take to fight about something that’s not going to even matter in four days is giving you away. Every explanation you make, when you didn’t even need to make it, is no longer with you. They are gone, and you will never get those moments back, nor will you ever see those moments again.
Not talking doesn’t make you weak, and it doesn’t make you reckless either. Not talking is a choice and you choose carefully the words that come out of your mouth and how they will affect you and the world around you.
There are some conversations you will give everything you have to, and for those other conversations, let them go.