Leaving Tracks

The things people say to us leave tracks. And really, so do the things they don't say.  Sometimes silence speaks just as loudly.  In difficult times, things can get said and maybe they are said and not meant but maybe they are.  Unless the person who said them addresses those words after the fact, what is a person to do?

Are we to assume that they were not meant because of the conditions under which they were said?  Are we to assume that they were a joke or being said sarcastically?  Are we to assume that the person really meant what they said?

I don't like to be left assuming.  Assuming gets us into trouble sooner or later.  And one thing I know from experience is that tracks left from hurtful words left unaddressed don't go away...at least for me they don't.  And when I have had the most horrible of things said to me, I have actually been the one to try to talk things through every time...and nearly every time, that person wants to avoid the conversation.  So, the tracks are left there and they still hurt right where they were laid.  The silence, the conversation avoidance, it leaves tracks, too.

So, when tracks are left by someone who says something horrible about one of your children, or when a parent casts you aside,  or when you ask someone what they would have done differently to change the way a week went and you get a response that cuts you deep....and you wait for the tracks to be covered and all you get is silence...what are you to assume?  I don't like to assume....there are too many possibilities...

People who leave the tracks should be responsible for clearing them if that is what they want...otherwise, their silence tells me that the tracks were meant to be there and there they shall stay.