9. To Be a Child of Three!

When a stranger says a kind word to us, we seem to value it more. When a close relative or family member says it to us, the positive impact is a little muted. For example, recently I came across a short video on social media. It was showing the positive reaction of every group or single person that was being approached with the message, “excuse me, you have dropped something…your smile. It is so beautiful.” Everyone in that skit smiled or thanked or laughed out loud. This no doubt, was the purpose of this enterprise.

I got to wondering that if someone close to me said that, I would probably not see this in the light it may be meant in! It is because of our previous encounters with these people on a regular basis that make us suspicious of the motivation behind such a remark. We collect our baggage over time with our continuous encounters which make it difficult to take any comment at face value. This is no doubt a survival mechanism that we have learnt in our childhood. After all, it would be foolish to keep a friendship with a bee that kept stinging us!

This behaviour, however, can be quite restrictive! We can loose spontaneity. When we expect judgement and criticism because of previous exchanges, it leads to a sad and sour relationship. So, the only way forward must be to drop the history and become like a child of three who can laugh or cry out loud and then forget about the happening and move on! Just imagine how light life would feel if I can create a daily practice of forgiveness to all the hurts I gather every day and let these slide away like the water over a duck’s back. The greatest benefactor of such a practice would be nobody else but me.