Total Kindness and Respect

I have some serious catching up to do! Thank goodness the amazing Blog Challenge bloggers have been keeping the #30PostsHathSept page alive and well (80 posts so far!).

Last week I was juggling a couple of freelance deadlines with stubborn migraines that had been becoming more frequent and intractable over several months. Finally, I made a trip to my doctor’s office and wish now I hadn’t waited so long to do so (let’s just say that, if I could, I would make the date when triptans were discovered an international holiday). Then, this past weekend, my husband and I visited our son and daughter-in-law in Boston for our son’s birthday—all of which is my explanation for not blogging for a week during my own blogging challenge.

The good news is that I am still on track to reach 20 posts by the end of the month. Even better news is that I’m just fine with the accomplishment of 20 posts rather than 30. Not allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good is something I’ve become better at. There are some benefits—many, in fact—of getting older.

Photo credit at end of post
Photo credit at end of post

Or, as one of my favorite authors, George Saunders, puts it, we can “err in the direction of kindness“:

“[T]o the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness. Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.” ~ George Saunders

Photo by Jennifer made available under a Creative Commons license. Post edited January 22, 2017.

5 thoughts on “Total Kindness and Respect”

  1. Migraines are horrible! I’m glad you found some relief. I don’t like that you were dealing with that, but I do like this post. I love the suggestion of trying to “get a kick out of” people rather than be annoyed by them or their behavior. And the idea of pretending things are happening on a sit-com might be a tactic to try even with my tween and teens. Laughter and kindness are often the best medicine.

    • Thank you, Mary! Yes, the sit-com technique is probably even better with teens (or working/living with the very elderly).

      I’m thinking of writing a post about migraines, since so many people (especially women) have to deal with them. The mediation I have started works like a miracle, so I am very happy in that regard (now there is the challenge of insurance coverage). 🙂

  2. Thank you for setting up this challenge for us Lisa and thank you also for this important reminder to treat everyone with kindness and respect. Hope you will be feeling much better very soon!

  3. Getting a kick out of people’s annoying habits is an interesting way to deal with them! I guess we sort of do that on accident when we tell stories about annoying situations we’ve encountered, because we tend to tell them as a funny story. I suppose imaging how to tell the story later while Karen is chomping on that Granny Smith is the best way to deal with it!

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