As I reflect back on the last week, my first thought is "what is happening in the world that is making everyone so angry?" I have been emotionally drained and attacked for my belief system and my values, my honesty and integrity brought into question by people who know next to nothing about me and my patience as a parent tried in having to deal with the same bullying issues that were thought to have been dealt with. Maybe there are things going on in their lives that the only way they know how to deal with it is to take it out on someone else. What they don't realize, however, is that I will staunchly defend all of these virtues. I basically got bullied myself by 3 people, one of which swallowed his pride and showed up in person to apologize to me. In the words of my husband, they picked the wrong person to piss off!! He's been married to me for over 20 years, he should know!!
I realize that is hard to be positive and happy all of the time, but at the same time, if there is something going on in their lives that is bringing them down, it isn't up to me to fix it - I'm not the cause of the problem, so don't take it out on the first person you see. Figure out the problem and fix it and move past it. If I've been wronged, I expect that person to apologize to me, the same as I would if I was the person who made the mistake.
I find that alot of these people don't like to take responsibility for their actions either. They figure the bullying is OK and it gets them some gratification to think they can push people around to get what they want. However, the opposite it true - being polite and nice to people gets much better results than bossing people around.
These incidents were a setback for me to say the least, but what I am trying not to do is to dwell on them and move forward, treating people with the respect they deserve and forgive them for their actions.
In the meantime, my friend and I have taken the mantra that we will be avoiding the negative people in our lives, and sticking with those who have a much more positive outlook on life. The negativity just gets everyone down, and life is too short to be mired in negative energy and darkness. I would rather be surrounded with positive, happy people who enjoy life, no matter what! In the words of Bobby McFerrin "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
