A lot of things have happened this week. Most of them I can’t talk about, which actually makes me sound much more intriguing than I really am :p
I want to keep this brief, I do have a tendency to ramble, though I’m sure I hide it well.
Today I want to talk about community. More aptly, the online community. I had a bad day, a couple of bad days actually, but just when I thought that all was lost, I was pulled out. On impulse, I shared my woes with a group I frequent on GoodReads. While I was sure folks would sympathise, I didn’t expect everyone to rally in the way that they did.
I was surrounded by support when I was all alone. My heart broke, I was ready to give it all up, then that group of amazing women stepped up to the plate for me in a way I could never have expected.
I want to share with you the details but I will respect anonymity and would never reveal information about another without permission. I’ll never be able to repay what they did for me that day. I wish I could. The truth is I’m sure they don’t realise just how touched I was by their support. They stood around me. Protected me. Cared for me. They displayed such a depth of human compassion that I’m still humbled by it. I now feel inferior in the face of the benevolent giant they became.
All of this began because the opposite occurred. I was attacked. My work was attacked. People from somewhere, acting in malice without any clear purpose or goal in mind, chose to target me negatively.
I won’t go on and on. But I feel it’s necessary to stand up and take note. Too often we hear of the bad in the world, we experience the worst of people, and it’s difficult to believe that genuine humanity exists. Well it does. I’ve seen it. I’ve felt it. People who count me as one of their own stayed shoulder to shoulder with me, they fixed the problem because they fixed me. They bolstered me. They told the truth. They couldn’t eliminate the injury, it was already out there. But they made me see that the spite of one was nothing in the solidarity of many.
This post is important. I have to have it noted. I need the memory out there. The permanent record has to exist. Goodness enveloped me, kindness cocooned me, and I was reminded that, life is ten percent what happens to us, and ninety percent how we react to it.
Be kind today. Practice compassion. It might be a simple act for you but I can promise you, from experience, it’s the world to somebody else.
Good luck on your adventures,
xSx
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