Have You Considered

I got into a somewhat combustible conversation today. It was about the election (surprise, surprise. Seems to be a lot of that going around). Lots of frustrated words flying and lots of perspectives crossing right past each other, no common ground.

Anyway, then I had this thought. Too long to tweet in one entry, and too important to me to risk the separate tweets not being strung together in the correct order or taken out of context.

So ... here it is:

When you see an article or video that relays something that purportedly was done to, or said to, or said about a woman ... by any candidate, or any member of their staff ...

before you speak your opinion, do you consider what if that woman was YOUR mom/wife/sister/daughter/girlfriend?   Do you think: "If it were someone close to me, would I still take the position I am taking? Would I still say the words I am saying?  Would I still say that woman was acting out of line, inapporpriately, overstepping bounds, asked for it, etc."

If you would ... if you would have the same view whether it was your mom or not, then by all means, carry on with whatever you have to say.

But ... if you would not... if you think to yourself: "if that was MY sister, or MY daughter, I would never say what I have been saying (or was about to say)" ... then perhaps you should pause. Rethink your comment. Because that woman ... EVERY woman ... is someone's mom/sister/wife/daughter. She deserves the same treatment you'd give, and want shown, to your own.

Surprise (Five Minute Friday)

Time to pause for 5 minutes and share ... 5 minutes on SURPRISE.

My girls left last weekend for spring break. 10 days with some combination of daddy, stepmom, grandma, and grandpa... and zero days with mom. 10 days is a long time and I miss them something fierce. Tonight is night 7 and I am thankful that we are almost at the end.

My oldest, S, had run back into the house before we went to school in the morning and then as we walked she made sure to tell me:

S: mom. will you go to the bathroom today?
me: umm, yes. I go every day? Don't you?
S: yes. but mom. you need to go to your bathroom. up all the stairs to your room.
me: why that one?
S: there is a SURPRISE for you mom. On the counter. Make sure to check on the floor in case the kitties moved it
me: ok ...
S: you will see mom. It will be easy to tell.

Dropped the kids off, and then made sure to visit that particular bathroom when I got home. Sure enough, on the counter was her new bracelet - that she'd gotten that week from Nana for a St. Patrick's Day trinket. With it was a note:

dear mom: please wear this bracelet every day we are gone. We will miss you a lot and this way you can remember us every day during spring break. I love you, Love, S

And so, as we approach the end of Day 7, I am thankful for a bright green elephant bracelet, and kids to miss, and that they miss me and make the time to know that this is hard but OK when we are apart.



Linking up with Kate and the Five Minute Friday crowd here. Join us. We'd love to share the community with you.

Share (Five Minute Friday)

(The five minute friday rules: write, unedited, for 5 minutes. link with the group at Kate's place (see bottom), and then read the post before yours and leave some encouragement for a fellow writer. Join us!)

 
Go.
I got some news last week that made me sad. Made my heart hurt. And then later on I read some news articles about the election. And those, too, made my heart hurt. There is a lot of hate and anger and negative energy and name calling happening. I grew up around politics. People used to hold protests in my front yard for crying out loud. The disagreements go back as far as the existence of people really. But I don't recall (granted, I am only 39) this level of flat out ridiculousness.

And so with this week's prompt I am going to share some thoughts.

Just because you and I don't support the same candidate does not make one of us right and the other one wrong. We can disagree and still have a healthy dialogue - about issues, about choices, about candidates, about the direction in which we should go. And at the end of the day , we can still be friends.  Different perspectives is part of what makes the world better. If everyone had the same opinion about everything life would be dreadfully boring. There would be nothing to talk about.

BUT ... talk. Discuss. No need to yell, shout, threaten, and belittle. I am trying to teach my kids to do better with this, and I need to do better with this, and in fact everyone needs to do better with this. You don't need to convince me to join your side. And if you do, or if you even want to try, here's a little hint: yelling at me isn't going to do it.

Unrelated to politics, but very related to talking: sharing is part of what we are all here for. Grieving: call a friend and share a cry. Get terrific news: call a friend and share your squeals of delight. Have a hard day - don't isolate yourself. There are people who will listen. Whether it's listening to you talk about whatever happened, or listening to you talk about anything but what happened. Or go, sit with someone, cry on their shoulder or get a hug and just sit in silence together. Something. Anything. Find a place to share ... because if you try to walk through life 100% alone, eventually something (big ... or small ... or small but it feels big because you can't see around/past/through it) will hit you that you can't do alone. Can't face alone. Or just can't bear to think about alone. When that time comes, I pray you have someone to share with, or someone to talk too. There's a hotline. There are people ... friends, neighbors. co workers. counselors. family.

Find someone. Share something. Call for help. Someone will be there.

Stop.

Resources for help

Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255

Or go here and click to chat.

Someone is there, ready and waiting to help you.



Sharing as a part of the Five Minute Friday community hosted by Kate. Join us there every week.