Compassion - I recently read an old friend commenting on not only having compassion for others, but having compassion for yourself. "Be gentle with yourself" she said. I feel like I've been trying to take that advice with myself on certain topics. I have been going through an odd time with someone I know and I've been trying to remind myself gently of all of the things that I've dealt with in the past and how they relate to what I'm dealing with now and that sometimes things just need to be over. I feel that so many people just don't let things go quietly into that good night - they feel the need to make them worse and worse. Or rather they have the opposite problem - they let them go so quietly into that good night that no one else realizes it, sometimes including the person that they're letting go. It makes absolutely no sense. I have no problem saying "this isn't working out, and I'm going to go walk this way. If we ever meet again, then maybe we'll catch up for old time's sake." But for now none of the amiable "this is an okay thing" stuff is going to happen. I get it - there's no way that this plan of action would work in this specific situation, but I kinda hoped after college that my friends and acquaintances would be adults. For the most part they are, and that is really really nice. It is so nice to be able to have a frank conversation with someone about a problem and then after resolving it (yay for resolution!) just loving them still - it didn't change anything, you're still the same people as before the conflict happened. If only it could all work like that...
Initial thought: Compassion
Time: 5 minutes
