All of my hard work for the last six months culminated last week… *** …By the end of it, I was emotionally and physically exhausted….
***I deleted the entirety of this story. Although entertaining truth, it is irrelevant to what happened next. See, all of my reasons why I acted in the manner I did doesn’t change these 4 sentences.
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A child told me, “Those grown ups are yelling at me, telling me to hurry up.”
I thought, “How awful are those adults to yell and be rude to a kid!”
I felt angry.
When I approached them and one of them said something rude to me, I engaged with them. We all said lots of rude things back and forth in very loud voices.
As a result, I was rude and yelled at them… notice a pattern?
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My point is, because I didn’t manage my thoughts before interacting with the adults, I REACTED to them from a place of ANGER.
End. Of. Story.
None of the other details matter.
What they did doesn’t matter.
Why they did it doesn’t matter.
Because, I can’t control other people. All I can do is control me. I am not the morality police. It is not my place to judge. It is not my place to teach them a lesson or make them feel the way I perceived that child felt.
If I was faced with the same situation, I would still defend that child. But, I would come from a place of love.
How in the world could I possibly come from a place of love when I perceive such an injustice, you ask?
We are all going through something. Who knows what has happened or is happening in those people’s lives to cause them to act the way they did.
My only goal would be to help out that child (whether that meant interacting with those adults or not). I would ACT with compassion, not react from anger.
For me…
Mistake made.
Reflection done.
Lesson learned.
Moving on.
For you…
Remember love… even when it is the hardest emotion to feel in the moment. You can’t go wrong if you are acting from love.