Tone

Stop right now, and grab a post it note, or an index card
Or some piece of paper. On that paper write the word – tone

 

Okay….. you read that line and thought… ‘I’ll do it later’.

No……. please DO IT NOW.    Smile

Have you ever walked around a grocery store and you keep meeting the same person in every isle ? This happened to me last week as my son and I were out shopping. I would turn the corner and there was this family of 4.
A father, mother and 2 girls. I would guess the children’s ages to have been  about 12 and 10.  The family might not have stayed with me over these several days since I kept running into them in the isles
had it not been for the negative, hostile and derogatory tones in which the parents were speaking to one another.....and now they haunt me.

If I had the ability to secretly video tape this family those adults might
be shocked at seeing and hearing themselves in the manner in which
they behaved.

Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or
grammatical meaning— that is, to distinguish or inflect words.

~ Be Aware of your tone ~

As a parent, I have used the one word reminder – tone – many times
over to my children. 

It’s really quite amazing, but we would never think of speaking to a
stranger in just quite the ‘tone’ that we flip off to those nearest
and dearest to us.

So…….. please go now and post the word tone someplace around
your home as a reminder for yourself.

Comments

[Debbie]

Hey Deb! I hope you had a Happy 4th! We went to the lake and wow this post hit home! I must have encounter "tones" every where I was...I do not think anyone realizes how they sound and I was just sitting here reflecting on this about an hour ago. We are still in tune, girl :) I am going to get that post it out now!

[David]

I have noticed this too many times. I come from New England and moved to Virginia as a young man. It was a difficult transition until I figured out it wasn't what I said most of the time. It was the way I said it. Southerners have a much different idea about the WAY to talk to someone. And tone comes into that very much.

Posted by: David | July 08, 2008 at 11:45 AM

[Tom]

Nicely said, Deb--as a teacher, I have to watch my tone constantly. And it saddens me to see so many people who don't watch their tone, especially when they're with kids, who never deserve to hear the negative tones. Keep this kind of post up--it's a very valuable piece!
Take good care!

[Debra Estep]

Hey Debbie, David and Tom,

Thank you all for stopping by and making
a comment. :)

Forgive me for being so late to respond,
as I have been out of town.

It's quite amazing to think we don't
even notice the tone of our own voice, but
when we see it so plainly in others it's like
a ton of bricks dropped right on us.

Too many times we are just not aware. :)))

[Patricia - Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworker]

Tone of voice is something that I definitely have to pay attention to. I am a recovering sarcastic person. I work hard, even today, to not use sarcasm in my speech. I am a past master at it and did not like the unhappy person that I was then taking my anger out on others with my tone of voice and words. No one deserves to be treated like that. Thanks for the reminder.