"Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant but not said, most of love is lost."
<br/><span class="body-2 opacity-80" style="padding-top:0.75rem">~ Kahlil Gibran</span>
Without them explicitly knowing it, this quote by Gibran is why clients call me.
While most of my projects start as succession planning, establishing governance, or family alignment, all of them have seeds of human complexity. Specifically, those things said that continue to linger and those things left unsaid that churn beneath the surface.
Let's break down the quote...
What is said and not meant.
We all say things we don’t mean. Don’t expect to change this and don’t demand perfection (for yourself or others). You are human. To be human is to accept flaws, errors, and emotions, however, growth comes in the recognition and eventual remediation of our moments of digression. Courage comes from owning the things we say and having the humility to say you’re sorry.
What is meant but not said.
This is perhaps a bigger lift. Deeper wells of courage are required to access the love, compassion, and care we yearn to express in the face of rejection and potential disappointment.
However, to echo Teddy Roosevelt:
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Apologize and get in the ring.
