These days, what you might be thinking when you hear about “tiny twigs” is something having to do with all the litle birdies who are TWITTERING and TWEETING and RE-TWEETING. 

This isn’t that.

These “tiny twigs” are where you go when you have something to say to someone which might result in your own dull thud to the ground.  These come at times when you feel like you have “had enough” of whatever this person is doing or saying—-but not enough of them. The dilemma.  Do you ditch the whole relationship because of your own discomfort or inexperience at sharing your truth? 

A friend of mine, used the “tiny twigs” expression with me, years back.  If I recall, she asked my permission to “travel out to the tiny twigs” to share something with me that was bothering her.  In my mind’s eye, I could see her out there, a quivering mass of courage and vulnerability, perched on a tiny branch. She was not trying to blow me out of the water or take me down a notch—she was venturing out—–into possibly dangerous territory.  Her willingness to show her own fear totally disarmed any defenses I might had had.  Being a big, adult person, clinging to the tiny twigs, high in a tree is no fun.  She cared.  It worked so well, that I stole the expression from her for all kinds of sticky situations since then.

Sometimes, just having the right words to say feels like such a relief.  So, here.  Use the “tiny twigs” for your own self.  One tiny phrase could open the door to your own courage when you want to speak up but don’t know how.  It gives you a chance to take a deep breath and it gives the other person just enough notice to brace themselves for the snoot-full of uh-oh’s and oh-no’s that may be on the way.  It takes the fear off the table and opens the conversation for the tender truths (or the big honker ones) to emerge.  It works, I promise.