Picture it: you are hiking, the sun is out, the leaves are rustling, happy, sun-dappled trees surround you except on the well-worn, welcoming path you are on. Then, when you come across the top of a rise, the weather does an extreme 180-degree alteration and a pack of wolves awaits you. The skies are dark gray, thunder rolls, saliva drips in anticipation from the wolves’ mouths and dread fills your heart.
Now imagine you are walking across a building and you are in a happy mood. It’s a good day and you have plans to make it even better. Then you round a corner into a room full of people. A room full of people, fangs bared, who are ready to pounce on you. (NOT in a surprise party in your honor kind of way.) Wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Go back to the first scenario – that’s how it feels when you start out ready for the day with an upbeat, happy heart and enter that room full of fangs where someone is ready to drop an unkind word or a direct attack on you. When it’s many someones, it’s even more of a full force blast. A 180-degree alteration.
Okay, so depending on who the wolves are, keep in mind that they could actually be sheep in wolves clothing. Right or wrong, wolves or sheep, they can’t know your perspective or understanding on whatever subject they are flinging about. Or they might just have a long-time habit of “kidding” that may feel like an attack. And if you’re having a bad day, they can’t know that their “kidding” may be sandpaper to your already raw emotions. Maybe they won’t listen to your perspective or care about your emotional status, so just turn the conversation as soon as it is possible. Walk away, if you need to, but don’t let them ravage you. Choose to let it wash over you, not take root in you. Because the thing is, chances are the majority of the “wolves” are in truth beloved, stuffed animals who have no idea that the fun-loving wolfishness could be upsetting anyone. Or if they do, maybe it’s for their own sense of need or lack of self-confidence, not as a means to destroy you.
Whether we are too rambunctious or overly sensitive, we should pick our battles wisely. Strangers or newbies, we can let go of, but most things aren’t worth loosing family or solid friends over. Family - and many friends - is history and some of it isn’t so great, but there are some great things, and those things create a cement that glues it together and in times of need that cement can help you stay glued together as well.
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