Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! ~
How To Avoid Conflict And Strife

The Porcupine. Or the Prickle-Pig. The unlovable hallmark of this spiny rodent is its 30,000 erectile sharp barbed quills which can really imbed skin-deep. The quills ballooned like a giant pin-cushion when provoked and the quills will lodge in the predator's flesh when brushes against it. The quill expands and cause the wound to fester which slowly leads to death of its predator.

All of us are porcupines aren't we? We can be prickly in times of anger, frustration, irritation and in the throes of bad attitudes, we dislodge our quills to the conflicting person in moments of impetuousness, impatience, insensitivity and unkindness. All of us are either densely-quilled or sparsely-quilled, either we are sharp and shrewd or unassuming and naive, but we all have "quills" due to each flaws of our character.

A lashing of hurtful words = Few quills dislodged. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
An outburst of anger = Few quills dislodged. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
A harsh criticism = Few quills dislodged. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
A rude remark = Few quills dislodged. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
An insensitive action = One quill dislodged. Ouch!
A rejected gesture = One quill dislodged. Ouch!
An untrue confrontation = One quill dislodged. Ouch!
(The list is inexhaustive...)

Can you count how many of your "quills" has been embedded into another person's heart? Needless to ask, your answer would probably be "I don't know." Any idea how vulnerable when tempers fray and fuses blown? Don't be surprised those quills left behind are innumerable. The aftereffects either be the wounds are oozing profusely or the flesh has hardened, thereby birthed forth wrath, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment and any grudges, causing ANY relationships to strain. One crack. Two cracks. Three cracks. Cracked!

The porcupine is a very vocal animal, it makes noises when it is disgruntled or riled, there are streaks of attitude in a porcupine. Aren't men nature similar? We grumbled in dissatisfaction and we tongue-lashed in fury, we show our attitudes in times of differences.

How then can two prickly porcupines still get along with each other? Don't raise the quills! You need to learn with one another to interact with the right tone and manner, relaying the right messages, adopting the right attitude, conveying the right responses all with the right words and actions at the right time and through the right mode of communication.

~Edelyne Lau