Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

When I finished giving the following talk at a local church over the weekend, the pastor smiled and said, you know, the job of a minister is to

comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I can always count on timber to do both.

I laughed when he said that, but I immediately realized that while it's funny and maybe even

sounds like a great quality for someone to have on occasion or as a public speaker, it probably

really annoys my friends when it presents itself in the form of a 20-minute

answer to a simple yes or no question.

When I hold up a mirror, so to speak, I tend to elaborate, perhaps to a fault, over-explain and use too many examples.

But it is for good reason.

We are taught a language, but we are not taught how to communicate.

Without elaborating, our conversations limit our connection

to our own individual level of understanding.

When someone says I love you, for example,

we assume they mean the same thing we do when we say it, but that's not necessarily the case.

And if we don't ask them to elaborate and explain what they mean, not only are misunderstandings likely to occur, but our perception of love in this case would remain

constricted to our own experience of it.

What a shame!

We basically rob ourselves of growth opportunities whenever we fail to elaborate or ask others to do the same.

The verb elaborate means to reinforce, enhance, amplify, and improve.

So imagine if we habitually did that in every interaction.

Everyday conversations provide us multiple opportunities to grow,

and failing to elaborate is like being offered a cluster of grapes but only

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