Thought for the Week from Karla’s Korner: The Art of Communication

Thought for the Week

I am proud to introduce a new column to Madame Deals! I think we all need a touch point a place we can go to be inspired. Karla is my children’s teacher, a good friend, and a person with a heart of gold. I hope that her words will inspire you to do more. We are only as good as the people we surround ourselves with. It is important to listen with your heart and proceed with your eyes open. Enjoy!

The Art of Communication

When I started writing Karla’s Korner several years ago I really did not expect to receive a lot of notoriety. My thought was that I would write my weekly column, people would make a few comments and life would stay relatively the same. Every week for over a year I shared my thoughts with readers and enjoyed the feedback I received. When the opportunity came to start writing for Lifetime Moms I was surprised that an organization like that would want to hear from someone like me. Who am I really? When I look in the mirror the person I see is nothing more than a wife, mother, daughter, teacher and friend. Up until that point I had lived my life under the radar and was perfectly okay with that. As I began to share my life in a broader arena, I quickly began to realize that I may just have something important to say. Once in a while I will receive an email from someone who has been affected by something I have written. I have been contacted by authors, teachers, national news stations and most recently a well-known newspaper for an online video interview. There are times when I sit back in complete awe at the journey I have been on for the past few years; after all I am just a simple country girl with a few simple ideas rolling around in my head. It’s when the communication starts that I understand that this journey is not only about me and my thoughts but it’s about the willingness to open up and communicate with people.

As a young girl I can remember my daddy stopping to talk to people everywhere we went. Once in a while my momma would ask who it was he was talking to when he finished and quite often he would reply “I don’t know I was just talking to him/her”. The family joke was that my daddy never knew a stranger. As a kid waiting for her parent to stop talking so we could leave that didn’t seem like such a positive trait to have; but now I have a different opinion. I have noticed that people don’t talk to people any more. While we all have friends and family that we communicate with, how often do we find ourselves carrying on real conversations with real people?

This past weekend I went to a Luke Bryan concert with some friends. After the concert was over, one friend wanted a t-shirt. As I stood there in line with my ears ringing and decompressing from the noise and excitement of the concert I noticed that the majority of people were texting. Now I am a huge fan of texting and social media and am thankful that that technology is available, however, real communication has taken a backseat to the technology; a fact that I believe is quite detrimental. With the lack of oral communication, written communication is suffering too. It was recently brought to my attention that script or cursive handwriting is not being focused on in school like it was years ago. Back in the day I can remember having handwriting assignments requiring me to write sentences in cursive and was actually graded on penmanship. Nowadays it seems that penmanship is not as necessary as pecking on a keyboard. Letter writing has taken a backseat to emails, texts, tweets, and social media. Throw in the fact that proper grammar has dropped on the totem pole of importance and we have a recipe for complete communication failure. Will life go on without proper grammar, neat penmanship and face to face conversations? Sure it will; it already does. But with the lack of these skills the ability to communicate effectively with other human beings suffers and we miss out on great opportunities to learn, share and communicate with those in the world around us.

My writing has allowed me to share my thoughts, my dreams and my heart with so many, but in order to continue on I must be able to make time to talk and listen to those who have something to say to me as well. Some of my greatest learning moments are when I am sitting completely still and listening to what someone is telling me. Listening and hearing are two totally different things; we must truly take time to listen in order to communicate effectively as well. Embrace the idea of reaching out and communicating with others on a more personal level. Get to know those around you; be real. As I have shared my life story with those in my world I realize that having others to share our thoughts with makes the journey so much more rewarding. Stop. Speak. Write. Listen. Communicate. Be real. Your life will be enriched when you do.

Peace,
Karla

Check out all of Karla’s Korner articles for more thought for the week here. Also, please visit Karla’s Lifetime Moms page and read her articles.

Topic: Thought for the Week