It's amazing what active listening can do

On Pace's request our good friends Louise and James, came to our aid the evening of our meltdown. James asked Pace and I to come to his office the following day.

His synopsis is that we're both "type a" personalities and that we both want to have our version of "the answer" prevail. So I sat, listened and kept my mouth shut while Pace talked. Pace then had to listen to me without interupting. The goal was to improve our mutual understanding, as we were both formulating a response to what is being said, rather than listening attentively.

I think we'd both heard each other saying the same thing time and time again so that rather than paying attention, we'd focus on winning the argument. That could not happen in this structured conversation.

It was time well spent. All of the stress is hard to compartmentalize at times.