In these parts where I live, our large population of part-timers have come back to town. My superpower is in its glory these days. Sigh.
At the company Christmas party over the weekend, I was speaking for a while to a young man who works for my husband. This young man is in his mid-twenties and he is a superstar. His parents are immigrants from Columbia. They have worked blue collar jobs their whole lives, and this young man worked to pay (and earned several scholarships) to put himself through college. He is one of the most reliable, smart, hardworking people who have ever worked for my husband. He is one of the most upbeat, happy people I have ever met. At the party, after him telling me that his rent had not gone up at all, and also about some winnings that he had won recently, out in Vegas, I said to him, “C, you seem like a really lucky person. Do you consider yourself to be a lucky person?”
He said, “Wow, I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday. I think that I am very lucky, because bad things don’t happen to me.”
This statement jarred my mommy heart and I started panicking thinking about the fact that unfortunately bad things eventually happen to everyone. “C, do you feel equipped to handle bad things when they will happen?” I asked him with sincere concern.
“I don’t think that I will recognize bad things, because bad things often turn out to be good things, you know,” is what C said to me. Wow. C is a naturally lucky person. He has learned to have a fabulous attitude at just the starting gate of his adult life.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Good morning!
I’ve just returned from my sojourn in Costa Rica (which was wonderful!) and just spent some time catching up with the posts from last week.
The one that spoke to me the most was KYP. I had one KYP experience during vacation, so reading the post was a timely reminder for me. My sister and I have been getting along exceptionally well this past year, so I forgot that she can be a bit prickly when she’s tired or stressed. She snapped at me during dinner one night, which took me by surprise, and I spent the rest of the meal trying not to cry. I was so bitterly disappointed; I thought we’d moved beyond that behavior and into a new realm. I’ve been pondering the circumstances that brought about her irritability, and I realized that she just needed an outlet, and that I was her “safe” person. She certainly wasn’t going to snap at our parents or at our kids, so it was either me or her husband, and I stepped on the landmine first. I was very hurt in the moment (and honestly, for a few hours afterward) but now I realize that it wasn’t about ME. I was simply convenient. Does she owe me an apology? Yes, but I KYP, so I know I’m never going to get it. It really is handy to KYP, and thanks to you, I now have a little shorthand phrase to remember that!
I love this illustration, Kelly. Whatever happens in our relations with others, it is rarely just about us. It usually has a lot to do with the other person. KYP helps!