I saw a car in the parking lot this morning that was covered in bumper stickers. Two caught my eye… the first was WILL WORK FOR PEACE. That’s just cute. The second was “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” That one I’ve been thinking about all day.
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. If we all enacted the same harm to others as had been done to us, what we are really creating is a whole world of hurt. Literally. If for every slight that had been done me, I hurt someone else, and they in turn someone, or me back… we would never really be achieving anything other than creating a miserable existence. This is how wars are started; wars among countries… you did this to me, now I’m going to do it back to you… I can even see this principle in my children. E will accidentally hurt B, so he goes bonkers and attacks E back, which causes me to yell, which causes B to cry and feel like no one is standing up for him… it goes on and on.
What if… instead… we just stopped all that. Just focused on what good has been given to us, or even better yet, what good could WE DO for someone else Just set down that giant rolodex we all carry around in our heads of who did what to us. Quit pulling out the insults that had been dealt to us so we could chuck them back at the beast that said them to begin with. Just set it down. How good would that feel?
There is a woman I know who is very ill. I talk with her on a regular basis, and one day I happened to mention to her how inspiring she was in my decision to go back to school. How I want to do more to help people than what I do right now. She was so excited about what I was doing, and every time she sees me she asks how it’s going. Do I love it, is it hard, am I happy? She tells me she is so proud of me, and can’t wait to see how it turns out. How much good she knows I will do for others.
The other day, on Tuesday, I told her I was going to have to drop the fall class I had signed up for due to some unexpected medical expenses. She told me that when she wins the lottery, she is going to pay my way for me. I laughed and told her she was too kind.
“No, I’m serious,” she responded. “I believe that when people do good things, good things come to them.”
She is so right. And how even more amazing that this woman, who has been struggling to save her own life, is so amazing and GOOD and is thinking about things like me… my schooling, what I will do for other people.. at a time like THIS. We should all be more like her.
Her next sentence was “And don’t be surprised when it happens. I play $2.00 every week. I am bound to win at some point!”
And this just made me laugh, because my beautiful grandmother used to say the exact same thing. I sure miss her. I would love to hear what she thinks about all this.
Tuesday, June 20th, was the third anniversary of losing her. Perhaps, I already have. 🙂
Have a beautiful, blessed day, my friends. Put down the rolodex! Relish in the joy of setting down that weight. Love someone today.
hiddenblessing 