Note to self:

Keep your big mouth shut.

Words destroy. They rip tears in people's hearts. They rip apart relationships. The Chofetz Chaim says that you should assume things are secrets unless specifically told otherwise.

I feel like that woman who came to a rabbi (was it the Chofetz Chaim?) and asked him how she could repent for saying Lashon Hara. He told her to take a feather blanket and rip it open (there's that word again). When she did, the feathers all flew away. She returned to the rabbi, who then told her to go and collect all the feathers.

"But it's impossible," she replied. "They've all flown in so many different directions; they're impossible to retrieve now!"

"That's just the point," responded the rabbi. Words are like that. Once they're out of your mouth they're gone. They can't be taken back.

But words are not like feathers, but rather like big, sharp knives...flying every which way, striking whatever they hit...

I wish I could adequately apologize.

Incidentally, I was just listening to a tape by R' Noach Orlowick, and he said an amazing truth: "The more aware a person is, the more capable he or she is to feel both pleasure and pain."
So it's zeh l'umas zeh - on so many levels.