I have a beautiful friend who calls many of my quirks "endearing." She laughs with me, and not at me. She thinks I am funny when I beg the equipment in the gym to go easier on me. She watches me navigate parenting with a calm sense of respect. And she helps me keep my business spinning on all cylinders. Her friendship is a beautiful gift to me and my family.
Recently, she was around when I had to own some of my not so beautiful quirks. A tendency to procrastinate. Forget things. Run hard at crunch time. Those idiosyncracies caused some friction with someone I respect. My beautiful friend was supportive and gracious, as always. But she did encourage me to do the right thing. The RIGHT thing. The honorable thing. The tough thing.
And the person I was at odds with, well, she was very gracious and surprised me with total release from guilt. As hard as I am on myself, I guess I expected that same stringency from someone I had offended.
In a funny way, what started out as an uncomfortable thing turned out to be a beautiful thing, though. I owned a mistake I had made, and there was no lasting effect. But all the while I was working through the process I was making creative avoidance my focus. I imagined that the person might think less of me, not like me, say difficult things. So, I came up with lots of "reasons" not to approach her and make the relationship the focal point. I made excuses.
Have you ever been through a similar situation? A time when you needed to handle something, but instead fear or uncertainty caused you to hold back and focus on ANYTHING but the person you most needed to focus on?
I'd love to hear how things turned out for you.
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