Thinking Before Speaking

I have a friend who I more thoroughly audit my words with before speaking them, taking extra care that what I am about to say is unlikely to upset them, considering more interpretations and implications than usual. On one hand, with most of my friends I think it is quite nice not to have to do this - I trust them to maintain their boundaries and am secure in the friendship enough that if I were to upset them, we could productively work through it so I could understand why, and how to avoid it in the future. On the other hand, it’s also quite nice to take that extra step of empathy, and really consider what impact my words might have on someone - particularly as someone with so much privilege, it’s not something I’m in the habit of practising. And the thing is, it really isn’t very much extra effort at all - so in my quest to be a better egg, I’m going to practise with more people than just one.