I've been playing with two metaphors for communication. When I snap at my husband,he tends to snap back at me. There's that darned rake, smack between my eyes. Call me stubborn, but it's taken me just about twenty years of observation and a very bruised forehead to see the possibility that getting what I do want may require a different metaphor.
Communication can be like opening a door.
Saying nothing says everything. That is, each conscious and unconscious act of communication creates a result. We have a choice about how we communicate. Paradoxically, we can't change life. It's not about you.