I was asked why the wee birds were always apart? So here they are getting up close and personal. Now how can I develop a childlike story from that I wonder?
I made one of the most terrible of mistakes yesterday and I feel terrible today because I did. I assumed something of the motives of a person and I learned how wrong I was. I prejudged somebody, something I am not usually guilty of. Let me explain in a little tale.
It had been a very hard day for PC Robert as he headed home to his family. He was concerned about where policing was heading, he seemed to spend more and more time filling in forms and writing reports. What had happened to the days when he began on the beat. Those days where he knew everybody and a word from him solved many problems before they even became big problems that needed reports written for.
How he longed for those days again. He began to wonder what Georgie had ready for him he was looking forward to a nice meal and some quiet time at home. Just then a car came round the corner and shouted at him, "Pig." This was just what he needed as he thought the day was over. Should he about-turn and make chase? He should not have to have such abuse.
Just as he was about to speed up and go after the car a large pig rounded the bend. How easily he could have ended up in an accident with a pig. he had not been insulted he had been in fact warned of danger.
How easily we can jump to the wrong conclusions about another person and in so doing act in the wrong manner. How often we do in fact jump to the wrong conclusions about others.
Why do we do this? often because of our own insecurity our own fears. We automatically jump to our defence having heard not what was said but what we expected to hear. Another reason is we jump to judgement of others. We see people and we expect them to act in a certain way and we, therefore, act in response to this false judgement.
Prejudge is a terrible thing and yet we can see it daily. Honest communication requires trust and taking a risk. And we’ve been burned too many times. So we settle for safety, make the natural assumption, and run head-on into our own version of that pig as we journey down life’s highway
There is a better way the way of taking risks. The risk of giving others a chance before we jump to the wrong conclusions.
But in this lies further risks.
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing and is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live. Only a person who risks is free.
That doesn’t mean we should be naive. It does mean we should be careful what we assume. Check it out. Give others the benefit of the doubt. And if someone shouts something unexpected at us, at least entertain the possibility that perhaps it may be more than a personal insult.
Who knows, that approach could change our lives. The stranger dressed so differently from you. The stranger that looks a bit of an oddball.
That stranger is just the friend you have not yet met.
Have a marvellous day my friends.
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