What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.

You know, some folks are just way too uptight. The individual who takes everything as seriously as a heart attack is likely to become quite the petrified stick in the mud.

Reading tootboy's  entry this morning brought to mind a recent incident with a fellow blogger that I once respected. I had left a reply to an entry that, judging from his sharp response, was not in any way taken with the lighthearted sarcasm with which it was intended. Not wanting to be misunderstood as one so shallow as he perceived, I noted that the way the remark was taken was NOT the way it was intended. Judging from his lack of response, I’m assuming that explanation was not accepted.

At first that bothered me, No one is ever comfortable about being misunderstood. But the more I thought about it, the more irritated I got. This person seems to have made the choice of holding onto his negative and erroneous opinion of me, in spite of my attempt to explain my true intent. What kind of individual does this? It’s funny, but as I see it, this individual was being as small-minded as he perceived ME of being with the misunderstood comment. I’ve found that very often, we tend to look for and dislike the most in others, those qualities within ourSELVES that we have the most difficulty acknowledging.

As was so well stated in these excerpts from Toot’s Sunday morning post:

"When someone is mad at you, not always, but often it means that they are at least a little bit self-centered. In other words, they don't see all you do right - instead, they only see what you did wrong" (or what they PERCIEVED that you did wrong).

"…it's important to remember that the anger is coming from inside of them - and not from you."

"When you make a mistake (and who doesn't?), apologize for what you have done" (or explain your true intent) "and see if there is some way to make it right. But by all means, don't spend even one minute feeling bad about it. You didn't do whatever it was on purpose and you had no ill intent.

My best advice about anger is to become comfortable with people being mad at you. It's really okay that they express themselves and it truly doesn't matter that their anger is directed at you. It should pass quickly" (but whether it does or does not), "send the angry person plenty of loving thoughts. Never think ill of them, even thought they are doing so to you. Stay on the high road of peaceful, loving thoughts."

Thanks Toot. I needed to be reminded of those things this morning. TWO very good things resulted from this. One, I am reminded that the road to peace is far more pleasant than the road that seeks out differences to disagree with and unforgiveness to harbor. Two, my Mindsay network was indeed, in SORE need of being cleaned out and slimmed down! It did not need to be cluttered up with folks I don’t know, folks who never come by, folks who bore me or no longer interest me, folks who don’t write anymore or folks who aren’t so nice! I went from a bloated network of 209 to a far more manageble 130! WooHOO! I feel a few pounds lighter already!

(I hope that I didn’t toss any of my favorites in the throes of my cleaning frenzy, though I fear I might have. I’ve already found 1 that I accidentally tossed and I had to re-add her! Ah well, if there was a genuine connection, I’m sure I’ll rediscover them!)