Member-only story
If we stop making others wrong, we may have a chance to come together…
Yesterday, I was scrolling through Facebook when I happened upon a meme that one of my dear friends posted.
She’s a lovely woman I’ve known for six years, dedicated mother and grandmother who would do anything for her family. And although she leans towards the conservative and religious side of things, while I lean more towards the liberal, spiritual side, we’ve had this unspoken agreement to honor each other’s beliefs.
However, the meme she posted triggered me like crazy. My blood pressure shot up and it took everything I had to set the phone down and not furiously type out a angry response that would effectively ruin our friendship.
As I breathed into and acknowledged my strong emotions, I was reminded I set an affirmation this year to ‘hold my current beliefs lightly.’
So, I asked myself, what if I stepped into her perspective? What if instead of lashing back about how wrong she is for viewing the world that way, what if I looked through her eyes?
What if I could compassionately try to understand a viewpoint so different from my own?
So I sat with it for about four hours, turning over all of the different perspectives in my mind. Turning to look from this view and moving around to see it from…
