Don't Take Yourself too Seriously

I still remember a long ago New Year's Eve. I was working alone in my office after most of the rest of the world had already gone home, and I was just finishing a few things before going out into the last night of the year.

I don't remember anymore what it was that I was so annoyed about, only that I was, at something that I was about to respond to by email. Suddenly, as I was about to press "send," I stopped, my finger poised over the mouse. Did I want the first thing someone read in the New Year to be a snitty email from me? Did I really want to leave behind a toxic trail from one year into the next?

Whatever I was so miffed about, suddenly didn't matter so much. I remembered something I'd heard somewhere--something about leaving behind a wake--or maybe it was about leaving fingerprints on people's lives! Anyway, I realized that just on the off chance that I might never be seen or heard from again I didn't want the last thing I did, to be unkind, even if it felt in that moment, justified.

I realized that I had gotten all tied up in a knot over something that really didn't matter and it involved taking myself way too seriously.

So I shook off the silliness, deleted whatever self righteousness was staring at me from the screen, turned off the computer and went home.

It wasn't the last time I climbed onto a high horse and had to get off, but I have learned to hear the neighing as one approaches and run in the opposite direction!

A point can be made without righteous indignation, sharpness, harshness or unkindness. Sometimes, oh this is the true Exclamation Mark I think, the point is "got" quite quickly by the other person. And there are times it doesn't need to be made at all, particularly if it just has to do with "me."

Someone once said to me that they wanted to leave every room better than when they walked into it. It was a person much younger than me who said it, but I stored it away as a gem of wisdom. I realize that it doesn't really matter how clever you are--people won't remember that about you as much as how pleasant it was to spend time with you--whether you were kind--and that you added some laughter and lightness to their day.

Comments

Brave Raven said…
The TLC channel years back had an ad campaign that said "Merlot and email don't mix." That was meant to be funny but it stuck with me. Sometimes our emotions have a way of distorting things and my emails have many times benefitted from "sober second thought." I'm a non-drinker but the sentiment applies well to us who are passionate about using words. We need to remember to always use our powers for good and not evil. :) And emoticons help. ;)
2:00 PM
Belinda said…
Dear Brave Raven, the TLC ad campaign had wisdom! And how true that our emotions distort things--and "sober second thought," or saving an email written with emotion as a draft--even for a few minutes, but better still a few hours, can help me see the words with different eyes. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
9:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Voyage

Image
Note from Belinda: I read this prayer yesterday and again today--and then I read it to Susan after cell group, when we were having our "second cup" of decaff coffee together. I knew that she'd love it. She has a framed picture on her office wall of a little blond haired girl in a sail boat on a stormy sea. A fatherly sailor,with a weather beaten face; in a gray sou'wester, holds her close, as he capably mans the tiller. This prayer reminds me of that picture and influenced what I wrote earlier today, when I used the metaphor of ebbing waves to describe a lack of consistency and my desire to crash over the sandbar into the peaceful pool on the other side.  ( Susan sent me a link to the painting, which was done by American impressionist Robert Reid in 1888.  It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.) Be bless ed by the beauty of this prayer. OH LORD OF THE OCEANS, My little bark sails on a restless sea, Grant that Jesus may sit at the
Read more

Ere Zij God--Glory to God in the Highest! A Dutch Carol

Image
By Belinda This beautiful Dutch carol was shared today by a friend of Dutch ancestry, on Facebook. I had never heard it before but absolutely loved it. It moved me deeply, especially at the end after the crowd leaves the church and then breaks into spontaneous singing again around a brazier, with the sound of chiming church bells in the background. Listen to it with headphones or a good speaker to get the full effect of the harmonies. And happy first Sunday in Advent!
Read more

Samson Beaver and his Family

Image
I first posted this in 2009, a little show and tell about one of my favourite photographs. Back then it hung on a wall, but now it's in my bathroom where I see it every morning! I'd forgotten the history behind the story, researched when I first posted this and thought that current readers might enjoy it--a story from a time when this land was still being discovered, not so very long ago. This photograph was taken by Mary Schaffer; artist, photographer, writer and naturalist, in 1907. It is of a Stoney Indian named Samson Beaver, with his wife Leah and daughter, Frances Louise. I bought the photo on a postcard, on a trip to British Columbia and it hangs framed, on the wall I face when sitting at my laptop. I love it. Don't you just feel as if you could gather Frances Louise up in your arms and cuddle her? I get a deep sense of peace and happiness when I look at this family, sitting in the grass of a long ago fall. They are dressed in their best, beautiful c
Read more