DON’T DRINK THE POISON
I stopped making New Year’s resolutions because I got tired of feeling bad about myself for weighing thirty pounds more than I did thirty years ago. I also gave up on resolving to get organized, because I have accepted that my desk will always be a little messy and my spices will never be alphabetized.
However, a few days ago as I was listening to NPR news in my car, I wondered once again why it has been impossible for Israel and Palestine to come up with a peaceable two-state solution. The next thing I questioned is why I have been harboring hard feelings toward some of the members of my own family. (Yikes!)
In the last few months, there were a couple of instances in which I felt like I had been cheated and treated unfairly. From my perspective, I was completely justified in feeling hurt and angry. I’m still not quite certain how my family members could have possibly viewed their behavior differently than I did, but obviously, they were able to work it out in their own minds.
I have no way of knowing if they had difficulty sleeping, but after I woke up many, many times at 3:00 o’clock in the morning with my heart beating and my mind raging, I decided to let go of my negative feelings.
Emmett Fox has been credited with saying, “Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
So here’s my resolution for 2017––When there is conflict, I will look for common ground. I will try to see the situation through other people’s eyes. I will be the first to apologize. I will focus on the great relationships and the positive things in my life, and when anger and resentment starts boiling inside, I will tell myself, “Don’t drink the poison!”
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