Diana Rankin

The phone rang one morning while it was still too dark to open my eyes. I was too groggy to even roll over and answer it. I waited for the caller to leave a message, but none came, just the jarring and persistent ring that jerked me awake – twice. The caller still didn’t leave a message, when they called back the second time.

I thought about why someone would call long before the sun yet had the idea of creeping over the horizon, and I wondered why they didn’t leave a message and why they called twice. I didn’t recognize the phone number, so I guessed someone had the wrong number. Maybe they called the second time just to make sure they really did have the wrong number.

It seemed rude to me that they didn’t bother leaving a message. It doesn’t take much to apologize and admit you have the wrong number, so please ignore the call. As I pondered on how rude the caller was and how polite I am because if I reach the wrong number, I do leave a message, and how rude it was to call at this hour of the night and how I wouldn’t do that . . . I found myself feeling a bigger person than the caller, better than the other person. Uh oh! Then I laughed. Talk about rudeness!

Once I got out of my loop of negativity, I started asking myself when else have I been rude to another person. I didn’t have to think long. Call it karma for how rude I behaved toward the customer service representative on the phone the other day. Ouch. Or how impatient I was with the shopper in front of me at the grocery, or how irritated I was with one of my cats because she wanted my attention and I wanted to read. Ouch, ouch, and ouch again. We don’t always want to look at the truth about ourselves, but we need to look. We don’t have to like it, but once we become aware of a truth about ourselves, it does set us free. . . that is if we take the next step.

We do not want to get stuck in a negative pattern, beating up on ourselves once we become aware of, and admit to, our own negative behavior. With a strong intention that we are sincerely sorry for our negative behavior, we need to apologize and send love to the person we displayed negative behavior toward, and then apologize and send love to ourselves. This can be done by simply saying a prayer or consciously holding the other in our thought for a moment, and then turning the prayer or thought on ourselves.

This practice allows us to look at the other’s negative behavior in a different light. Instead of feeling the other is wrong and we are right, we begin to thank the other person for mirroring for us those pockets of negativity we need to root out within ourselves so that we may live in greater grace and joy. As we excavate our not conscious thoughts that add negative energy to our lives and to the world, we are able to counter them with positive thoughts of compassion, consideration, respect, charity, thoughtfulness, care, kindness – thoughts of love.

In this way we evolve our own lives, and we evolve our world to one of greater humanity for all.