Flying high
A man may do an immense deal of good, if he does not care who gets the credit for it. ~Father Strickland, 1863
Somebody forgot to mention you in their all-powerful speech. Or acknowledge you. Or to look at you at the right moment – the moment where it mattered – where everyone will realize – or remember – that yes, it was because of YOU.
You were prepared to smile, to blush, to say that it was nothing, or that it did not matter, or that you did not want recognition, or anything.
But you were forgotten.
It was a slip, a sliver of a moment, but it hurt like hell.
And all along you had that bloated image of you, of how important you were, of how loud the claps will be, believing with all your heart that the success was because of the work of your hands (and you are probably right), of how everyone all wanted to be you. The man. The woman. Of the moment.
But your frail ego suffered a spectacular blow.
In your mind, you are humiliated. You imagine that people are laughing, or pitying you. You could not handle laughing, or pity. You could not handle them knowing.
Your mind became self-destructive. You wanted to lash out, give them a taste of your power. In your mind you flirted with possibilities. Withdrawal. Words.
One great, towering figure in a sea of humanity – an image snatched from you.
What is the best way for them to know that you just wanted a pat in the back? But in the most spectacular and destructive way that you can?
Everyone has fell into this trap. Jilted, forlorn, forgotten. After a great high. After an expectation.
The letting down does not have to be done on a stage. It could be closer to home – a daughter, a son, a mother, a father, a friend, a husband, a wife who has forgotten.
When your spirit was only hanging on because of the thin thread of longing.
But if we looked outside our hurt and ask ourselves – in the grand scheme of things, what are we? Where are we?
If we realize that we are but a speck, we probably would not swallow the bitter pill – the one that makes us think of imagined wrongs, or making ourselves look greater (to ourselves) than what we really are and risking looking like a fool to others.
If we realize that we cannot expect the best of people all the time because they are human and they forget.
If we realize that we are islands in ourselves – that all of us (all) think only of ourselves and look within most of the time – seeing only us, knowing only us, feeling only us – that inside each one (each one) is someone lonely and alone and misunderstood, wanting (needing) the same things we want.
That humility would be the better stance, the better pill, that it could forgive any and all inequity.
That in our smallness lay our greatest power.
“In the end, just three things matter:
How well we have lived
How well we have loved
How well we have learned to let go”
― Jack Kornfield
Article by Issa. Art by Danvic.
Copyright 2009-2012.
Website: www.YouWantToBeRich.com
Email: issa@youwanttoberich.com