Step 16 – Open-ness

“a stranger is a friend we haven’t met”

I love that quote. It says much about our inbuilt suspicions of others; their motives, their ‘bad-ness’, their mistrustful characters.

but aren’t we all human beings? just doing the best we can? aren’t our motives the same? to find happiness, joy, balance, and wisdom? some might be misguided in how they think they will achieve those aims, but the fundamental drives are the same.

the commonalities are there.

——–

some of the people I value most in life are the ones I had a bad reaction to when I first met them. They were too much of this, or too much or that, or weren’t considerate enough, or too pushy. They were my own biases. But when I got to know them better (through a forced work environment) I could appreciate their stronger qualities; maybe traits I didn’t have. A valuable lesson.

in more normal situations, I would have avoided those people, and not gained from a connection. Through open-ness, and withholding judgment for a-while, I openly benefit. Give people a chance to show the full range of their character and life experience.

I’m much more embracing these days 🙂

scored for strings (1st and 2nd violins) and bassoon

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Tags: bassoon, strings