I was suffering from insomnia on Christmas morning this year.  I woke up at three am, and lay wide awake in bed for the next two hours.  Personally I blame the fact that I have no idea what a sugarplum looks like.  My imagination turns sugarplums into a cross between Audrey II and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.  When you’re dreaming of those things, of course you’re not going to be able to sleep.

At five o’clock I finally got up and went downstairs to read.  Patrick Lencioni’s latest book, Getting Naked, had been sitting in my to read pile for awhile.  Two and a half hours later the mice still weren’t stirring, but I had read the book cover to cover.  Why was I able to finish the book so quickly?  No, not because it was a picture book of people getting naked.  It’s structured as a first-person narrative, or as the author calls his works – fables.

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All I ever wanted,

All I ever needed,

is here in my arms,

Words are very unnecessary,

They can only do harm.

- Depeche Mode “Enjoy the Silence”

How often have you felt this way?  You know you’ve got all these intense emotions that get brought to the surface, and you end up getting in an argument which isn’t what you want at all.  It was until recently that I started to realize my role in all the arguments that I’ve gotten into over the years.  I’m one of those sneaky poor communicators.  I seem to be really great at communication until you see me in an argument, and I don’t get in arguments all that often, so its rare to see me at my worst.  Unfortunately for those closest to me, I really do have issues with communication when I’m passionate about things and I’m trying to communicate.

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