How Do You Treat Others?

There are two people I work with who have vastly different personalities and ways of going about things. It seems they are currently not seeing eye to eye on anything and things are fraught with tension. They have met to work things out, but it has only seemed to brew more dissension. I hate to see someone who I see as a really nice person be hurt by another person's sense of self importance. I'm hoping is doesn't do lasting damage or cause them to leave their position here because I think they do a lot of good here.

I am currently reading the book "Time Untime" by Sherrilyn Kenyon. As I've mentioned before she is one of my favorite authors and I've quoted from her in the past. So far found I have found this book to be somewhat hard to follow. I rarely if ever don't finish a book I start, but I have been known to move into a mode where I read, but somewhat dissengage from the book. A lot like I did back in the day when I would be required to read something really boring in college. Despite being in that mode the following passages reached out and grabbed me the other night. Maybe because I have been hurt and betrayed by someone I totally trusted and felt was my friend. It is a hard thing to get over. Also, because there are things I have done that I have later regretted or felt I could have handled better. I guess it all comes down to the way we treat others and my desire for us to be aware of how our actions affect the world around us.

Maybe this doesn't make sense to anyone else, but I thought I would share this in case it strikes a cord with anyone besides me. If not, that's okay because I keep this blog mostly for myself anyway.

"Life is messy. It's not easy and it's definitely not for the timid. Everyone has a past. Regrets... Betrayals... Life isn't about learning to forgive those who have hurt you or forgetting your past. It's about learning to forgive yourself for being human and making mistakes. Yes, people disappoint us all the time. But the harshest lessons come when we disappoint ourselves. When we put our trust and our hearts into the hands of the wrong person and they do us wrong. And while we may hate them what they did, the one we hate the most is ourself for allowing them into our private circle. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have let them deceive me? We all go through that."

"If we're lucky, we find the one person who will hold our trust and keep it sacred and safe against all attackers. That one soul who will restore our belief that people are decent and kind, and that life, while messy, is still the most wonderful gift anyone can know. But until that day comes, we have to try and remember that (our faith) is something we carry inside ourselves. That touch of the divine that lights a fire inside us that burns out the past and consumes the pain until nothing is left but a warmth that allows us to love others more than ourselves. A warmth that only grows when we do right even while others seek to do us wrong. Peace is knowing that one life, no matter how trivial it seems, touches thousands of others, and learning to respect that about all people. While you may not mean much to the world, to those who really know and love you, you are their entire world. And is the knowledge that no one can hurt you unless you allow them to. The only power they have isn't something they've taken or demanded. It's what we give them by choice. And while it is imperative that we value the lives of others, it is equally important to value our own.

"The truth is always simple, but the path to it is overgrown with thorns and lined with traps. Our fears and our emotions cloud even the brightest day and the clearest truth. You can't replant the garden until you've overturned the soil. And nothing new can grow until the old dies. We can't change what we've done, but we can always change what we're going to do."   -Sherrilyn Kenyon