Piss Me Off, But Don't Piss ON Me!

I know all too well about losing your temper, behaving irrationally, exploding, ranting, raving, the head-spinning kind of anger that leaves you physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. When you feel this anger it almost starts as agitation way down in your toes and works it's way up until your face is flushed and steam pours from each ear! The mind whirls with a thousand things it wants to say but the jaw tightens, eyes narrow, pressure mounts and only grunting utterances spew forth. You can't get the words out so your body takes over the communication thru eye rolls, pursed lips, stomping feet, and crossed arms. For me, it's pacing. I pace back and forth and back and forth like a lion searching for prey. Finally, the explosion of verbal lashings ignites and the tongue is inflamed! It twists, it turns, it dances, offering up an oral flogging of dynamic proportion! You stand there with puffed up pride, for you have spoken your mind, and you are right!

When you finally exhale and see the damage your tirade caused, you deflate. You look at the person who became the object of your anger and realize you just locked, loaded and fired all weapons with no mercy. Whether what you said was right or wrong, fact or fiction, suddenly becomes irrelevant. Only the pain matters now as you're swept away by a wave or remorse.


We all get angry … sometimes it's justified and sometimes it's just an over-reaction. While in the throes of anger, it is important to try to control your tongue. Some of my most regrettable moments in life are when I blurted something in anger that I wished I could later take back. Whoever coined the phrase, "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me," was a moron in my book. I'll take a stick or a stone any day over a harsh word that lingers in my heart for the rest of my life.


As I age I'm learning to bite my tongue a little more, to breathe before I speak. I have a long way to go on this one… but I'm trying… trying to realize that just because someone pisses me off, it doesn't give me the right to piss on them with my words... and vice versa.