A Time to Meet the Self I Could Not See

There was a time when I tried to teach my wife how to improve her golf swing.

I remembered the old saying, “Never try to teach your wife golf or driving,” so I chose my words as carefully as I could, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

Then, suddenly, she stopped practicing and said,

“Why are you talking to me so curtly?”

I was certain I had been speaking gently and carefully. Yet to her, my words had sounded abrupt and unfriendly.


Not long ago, I was surprised when I heard my own voice in a recorded video.

I had always thought I spoke clearly and rather quickly. But the voice on the recording sounded much slower than I had imagined—and strangely unfamiliar. I was especially embarrassed to discover that my regional accent was far more noticeable than I had realized.

The voice I hear when I speak is not quite the same voice that others hear.


Our lives are not so different.

Just as we sometimes need to listen to a recording of our own voice, there are times when we need to see ourselves through the eyes of others.

Other people can become mirrors, reflecting parts of ourselves that we have never been able to see.

We tend to believe that no one knows us better than we know ourselves. Yet while we can see our own face in a mirror, it is often only through the eyes of others that we can truly see our character, our attitudes, and the way we come across.

Perhaps the people who know us best are not always ourselves, but those who quietly observe us from the outside.


Reflection of the Day

★ At this hour when darkness and light meet, I reflect on the wisdom of looking inward before looking at others—echoing Socrates’ timeless counsel: “Know thyself.” ★

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