This was in the Locke List a few weeks ago. I stumbled upon it and thought it was fitting to post today. <3
Someone threw a brick at me yesterday.
To be clear, it wasn’t the kind of brick made out of clay or concrete. It was the kind of brick lodged at my head that came from someone’s mouth.
Yeah. Ouch.
I’d take a lump of clay tossed my way any day over words. I guess it’s because if someone actually throws something at you, you can clean up the mess and go on about your day. But words? Man, they hurt. They linger. Those wounds don’t heal well, but rather fester so you have to think about them forever. (Or it feels like forever.)
What did I do? Well, I got my feelings hurt. I sniffled. I might’ve cried. But the sun came up this morning and, with it, came a little bit of clarity.
It’s clear what was said was a reaction of someone else’s pain—pain I didn’t cause but had to receive the fallout from. And, you know what, the pain stops here.
I could take it and carry it on my shoulders today and have a terrible day, biting my husband’s head off, griping at my kids, maybe even giving myself a tension headache from the stress. But what good would that do? None. All it does is continue on with the cycle.
Instead, I decided not to just end the cycle by letting it go, but also by turning it into good. I took that brick and my little revelation and used it to make me stronger and wiser and better.
The next time someone hurts me, I won’t bite back immediately. I won’t take it out on someone else either. I refuse to take other people’s hatred and negativity and let it flow through me in any way. Nope. I’m done with that. Lord knows the world has enough viable negativity conductors. 😉
I’d like to thank that person for throwing the brick. Turns out, my foundation was a little wobbly anyway.
