Sometimes we get upset about silly stuff. But it doesn’t seem silly to us at the time. Which is why we’re so upset. Something’s wrong. But sometimes it doesn’t translate. Which is why others don’t seem to care as much. Which is why they’re not upset. Which can be upsetting, when others don’t see what we see. Which isn’t a prerequisite to getting upset. You can get upset just fine without understanding what’s wrong. We easily get pulled into the vacuum of upset others and find ourselves upset. We were fine a minute ago. Now they’re upset so we are too.
A few scenarios:
They’re upset and we’re not so they must be wrong and should stop being upset and until they do we are going to be upset.
They’re upset and we don’t like when others are upset so we’re going to be upset.
They’re upset and we have room for that so we stay our course with mood unblemished.
I’ve tried all three. They all have their merits. I prefer one particularly. While it’s unfortunate that someone is upset, it’s not a character flaw if I don’t reciprocate. They may be having an off day. Or they may be in constant agony ricocheting from one offense to the next, forever and ever amen. It makes no difference to me. I’m not getting sucked in. Because they might just be having an off day. Or they might be miserable for hire. Should I let them spoil the peace? Will I be better equipped to sow kindness if I’m sprayin’ instead of sayin’ suffering succotash over somebody else’s problem?
How often are you upset?
How often is it because someone else was first?
