Egg Toss

Remember the summer picnic games from when you were a kid?  Three legged races and potato sack madness.  Egg toss and water balloons? I have many memories of company picnics or church BBQ’s with all of these being the biggest highlight of the day.  I think the most nerve-wracking of all was the egg toss.  Just the idea of accidentally dropping the egg or having it crack all over you in the hot sun was too much to anticipate.

And you had to work together. Your toss had to be just gentle enough to not pick up too much speed while also not throwing too soft that it didn’t make it to your partner.  And of course your partner had to catch it with just as much gentleness and timing.  Making the catch while also letting their hands glide back to take some of the momentum out of the throw. Too much physics and gravity to calculate.

Sort of like communication in a relationship…right?   Where you have to perfect the timing between the two of you to keep the conversation going while also making sure you’re not coming in so hot that you blow the other one away.  Where you’re both working to open up enough to be vulnerable but also not derailing things where it’s beyond lopsided or too volatile to be productive. The gentle art of tossing something delicate to one another without dropping or damaging it.  Sounds like a game of egg toss to me.

Communication, especially the stuff that grows our relationships needs to be treated with care.   A bit of finesse, a lot of compassion and always done with some gentleness. 

The next time you’re headed into a more delicate conversation, think of the care you need when playing the egg toss game and you might find some success in your exchange.

I’m cheering for the two of you.

-A

P.S. Need to get back to basics when it comes to communication?  Follow this link to enroll in the Communication Masterclass and reestablish a solid foundation…together.