Another glorious October morning. Our last of this beautiful stretch before cold sets in? Maybe. All the more reason to soak up every bit of sunshine and warmth today.
A few cloud wisps in the south and west were bright pink before sunrise. Sarah and I were out early. I felt I had to revisit yesterday's scene today, since it would be harder to go back the longer I waited. Proprietor gave me her usual warm greeting. I told her I'd felt bad about leaving the way I did but that pursuing argument felt not only frustrating--frustration often needs to be endured--but, worse, counterproductive. She listened (she's a good listener) and saw right away what I meant about argument escalating rather than resolvingconflict. "But when you left, he stopped," she said. "Nothing anyone said had an effect on him, but that did." So then I felt not quite so bad about having left. Still, I told her, not arguing is only the negative part of the challenge. The positive challenge, the one that is much, much harder for me (and you know that's hard if I tell you that my mother always said I'd "argue with St. Peter himself"), is to practice kindness in such situations.
Reading Obama's March 18th speech on race helps a lot. Hearing the happiness from all over the world helps, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment