My upstairs neighbour doesn’t like swearing and recently gave me a small bottle of essential oils designed to “improve emotional and spiritual balance”.
‘Have you been hearing my swearing?’ I asked.
‘Oh, no,’ she lied.
My loud voice has always been a nuisance for others and it becomes much louder when I’m angry. I work at my desk, which is just below my neighbour’s kitchen and I frequently get angry about passwords.
When presented with the direction ‘enter your email address and password’. I become easily confused. Do they want the password I use to access my email or a different password? Sometimes I have created a new password and discovered that I now must use this new password to access my email. As I often access my email remotely, this is most inconvenient.
I record all my passwords in a book, which I keep on my desk. I disguise the entries by entitling them ‘bank’ or ‘superannuation’ so that anyone gaining access to my book will not have access to the names of my bank or superannuation company. However the password changes are so frequent that I am fast running out of space.
I am old and sometimes become muddled. The other day I was trying to access online banking but my password was refused. It was definitely my password but it took me a while to realise that I was entering my gmail password rather than my bank password.
All this causes me to swear loudly and often to thump on my desk in frustration. While swearing is a relief, I also feel guilty that my neighbour must hear my profanities. I feel much worse when she is obviously lying about it.
This leaves me with a lack of clarity. Is my favourite gripe issues with passwords or a neighbour who can’t be honest with me? This only exacerbates my confusion.
By Julie Richardson, Counsellor
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