I Am Not a Malicous Person.
In almost four years of blogging, I have never once written a post that would – or even could – intentionally hurt anyone.
Once I wrote about being chased down the highway by an angry biker – so that post might be the exception, although I believe the angry biker would not have been offended by his portrayal.
But I am not a malicious person.
Over the years, this do-the-right-thing attitude has gotten me into trouble. I trust people who are not trustworthy. People take advantage of me. They lie to me. They step all over me.
But I stay honest and open in my blog anyway.
It is a blog that I pour my personal insecurities into, where I admit my faults and fears as a parent. I write it because I love my kids. I am fascinated by my kids. I think parenting is the hardest job on earth, and my kids have such interesting idiosyncrasies that I want to capture them all while we are on this journey together.
Sure, I have issues. I am not perfect. And when my issues involve another person, I always go to that person directly and try to work it out. If someone or something is bothering me, I do my best to politely figure out a way to solve the problem.
This does not always work. Still, I try to keep the communication lines open and follow The Golden Rule:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
If my blog ever offends someone, I would hope that they would come to me and have a rational, adult conversation. But there are adults in this world who never get to the point of acting like adults.
Still, I try. And even when the mature thing eludes me, I take responsibility for whatever I did wrong as soon as I know I’ve messed up.
I live my life by these simple principles. I live my whole life trying to make the world a better place. I really try.
Not everyone likes me; that is abundantly clear. It’s also okay. If everyone liked everyone, there would be no diversity or meaningful relationships in the world. One of the things I love best about this world – especially in this country – is that we are free to choose our paths in life.
And we can choose with whom to walk those paths.
I am blessed beyond compare to have a wonderful, loving family and friends – real, true friends. There are people on whom I could call day or night, with any challenge, and they would be there for me.
I did nothing to deserve this; I simply thank God for them.
And for those people who will never, ever make it into my small, blessed circle: I thank God for them, too. Because without malicious people, I wouldn’t truly appreciate what a wonderful life I have.