100 Sad Days; Day 34: Say it Like you Mean it

Elton John was wrong. Sorry is not the hardest word. In fact it is all to easily said and not meant.

For years I thought that flowers were a sad excuse for a sorry. Now I realise that what is worse is the empty shell of a sorry. The echo of an unmeant apology received in hope but ushered in haste.

I cannot count the times I have heard the word. From a forced apology "say you are sorry" to one that is said unkept.

We all say sorry. We bump in to someone and manners tell us to apologise. We drop something and we apologise. Sorry here is lighthearted but still meant.

Kids fight or shout and apologise as they are taught to do. Sometimes they mean it sometimes they just say it. They are kids after all.

Adults should know better. Sorry should mean just that. It isn't an excuse for bad behaviour. It isn't a "make everything better with one word". It should be said with the mouth, the heart and the mind. If you are sorry then be sorry. Stop glossing over everything. If you are sorry for your actions and then go on repeating them what does that say about your apology? If you say mean things and apologise but forget to think before you say them again, was your apology a pointless one?

Oftentimes we are truly only sorry when it is too late. When we cannot change what we have said or done. When the time has passed and the hurt already caused.

At the time, you mean it, you want to make things better. A sorry is only a sorry if it changes a behaviour. Stops the recurrence. Prevents another broken promise and an eventual shattered heart.

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