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| Comic courtesy of xkcd (I think this may be my favorite comic ever in the history of the world.) |
I (in my real life, pseudonymless state) have been participating recently in a book discussion with a group of friends online. And things have gotten heated. I have opinions. Other people have opinions. Other people have opinions about my opinions. Other people felt hurt and dismissed by my opinions. I felt hurt and dismissed by other people's opinions.
So, I did that thing that I do, where I fuss in my head about how to make people understand where I'm coming from: "Hey, I'm smart too! My opinion's not ridiculous! I'm not crazy! I've been misunderstood! Misinterpreted! And I'm going to find the right words to prove it to you." I fussed and fussed in my head, all morning long. I fussed to myself as I made breakfast and got the kids dressed and put my son on the bus and took my daughter off to her school. And I fussed nearly all of the way home from her school, until I finally stopped and thought, "Enough! This isn't healthy or sane. I need to look at this a different way and let go. God, help me let this go."
That's when a little voice inside my head said, "Seek to understand, not to be understood." And that was it. That was the answer. I could feel my shoulders letting down and feel myself relaxing for the first time all morning. I was trying to be understood rather than trying to understand. "Ok, I'll try to understand," I told myself.
Then two seconds later, I heard myself say, "Ah, screw it. I have no idea how to do that." And I went home and wrote a long, ranty e-mail to make folks understand me.
Yep.
I'm thinking I got the "praying only for God's will for me" part of Step 11 today, but I clearly still have some work to do on the whole "power to carry that out" part.
This post was originally published at The Second Road.

I, too, have been there. It's a frustrating place to be.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I love that comic, too! Very apropo.
Oh I love that comic too.
ReplyDelete