Just like everyone else, I too experience moments when I am tempted to judge or criticize; times when I yearn to condemn another’s misdeeds or analyze their choices or advise their alternatives. And yet these days — more often than not — I catch myself doing so … and then I pause for just one more second;

… and then I remember that I haven’t the faintest clue as to what is going on in those folks minds in that moment, or what they went through last week, or how they were raised as children.

True, we are ALL conscious beings who more often than not definitely “know better”, and I certainly have no problem with continuing to identify the behaviors I see that are kind and those that are callous, and to discern which of my own choices are being made for others and which are being made for myself.

And yet these days there is a difference …

These days, the difference is that I refuse to judge the people doing the selfish deeds (or the callous responses, or even the violent acts) as “bad”, just as I also refuse to judge myself as “less than” if I happen to slip and make similar mistakes.

The difference is, I choose to see people — myself as well as others — beyond their behaviors & past their choices.

The difference, I think, … is that I have finally grown UP.

Filed under: Practical Tips for Peace-full Living by Scaughdt