Experiencing one tiny sliver of the Infinite at a time
“It’s about joyous expansion.”
~~Abraham Hicks
Many wise people have likened life to a journey. We move along our trails from birth to death, picking up experiences and, hopefully, growing along the way. Recently I’ve been thinking about this and starting to understand it a bit more. For me, it’s even more helpful to think of each of our lives not as a single journey but as a collection of journeys.
One of things I’ve decided to change is the way I interact with people throughout the day. I’ve decided to stop simply reacting to the way other people are behaving and make a choice as to how I want to behave and interact with others. I see situations fairly often in public of people reacting to the other person. If someone smiles and is friendly, people smile back. If the cashier is a bit rude, people are often a bit short, if not downright rude, back.
I have to admit, when I first had this idea, the thought of continuing to be warm and kind to someone who was being less than kind to me sort of irked me. Shouldn’t I stand up for myself? But then I asked myself, is being rude back to a rude person standing up for myself or is it retaliating?
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world”
~~Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi’s quote is beautiful and so simple that it seems obvious. The best quotes are. If you think people should be more considerate in public then be considerate. If you think people complain too much then stop complaining. I had a nice, little laugh at myself when I realized that I was complaining about the fact that other people were complaining. 🙂