I suck at the virtue of patience.
There is truly no "gentler" way of putting it because any way that I cut it up, I end up coming out on the negative.
For example, I will text or email or facebook someone a message. I know for a fact that they have checked their phone, their inbox, and updated their facebook three times. And yet, despite them still being "connected", they have failed to address my communication.
Maybe it is a lack of understanding on my part.
Perhaps their world is crumbling down
Perhaps they had 2500 other texts to respond to that, priority wise, needed to be dealt with first
Perhaps the computer died RIGHT before they clicked "Send" on their response to me
Perhaps the answer that they need to give is too hard or long to type and so rather than responding to say, "let's chat instead, when are you available?", they defer it, indefinitely
Perhaps they are on holidays and despite updates, have chosen to ignore any personalized messages
Perhaps they would just prefer to cease communication
Or... perhaps they are simply jerks and have opted to not do my communication an ounce of decency by responding in a timely fashion.
But then just tell me.
Instead of asking you whether you have enough staff to properly fill your event, I will assume that you are okay until you specify otherwise.
Instead of texting/facebooking to find out that you are transitioning well in your new vocational path, I will trust that if I can be of support to you, you will seek me out.
Instead of emailing you weekly, as you requested, numerous times, I will email you biweekly or triweekly.
Instead of requesting some time in your wonderful presence, I will go ahead and fill my spare time with people who respond or donating my time to further developing the youth of our community through coaching or volunteering.
Instead of doing you the service of requesting your lived wisdom, I will become more resourceful in seeking such information for myself.
In a society where all our of closest contacts are truly at our fingertips, I think a lesson needs to be taken in proper etiquette around such mediums. Or perhaps some education on how silence sometimes does or says more - even if that is not the message we want to be sending to others.
Everytime someone fails to respond in a timely manner, I promise myself that I am just not going to approach them in the future - leave it in their court, wait for them to contact me, or return the favour when they have requested time sensitive information from me. I promise myself that for as many rude individuals there are out there, there are just as many who have communication manners.
But then I get the frantic email asking for my presence or help with something, and I jump to assist or a request to do something as a third party request and I realize that my frustration or hurt must have been unwawrrented or I was too impatient.
And everytime... I end up giving in and persisting in my communication with them. Trusting that if nothing else, they might notice and start to respond in a timely fashion.
