The dog days of summer haven’t gotten to me, but the dog days of the negative energy of people is wearing me out!! I think  that it is pretty sad when my son calls almost every morning to ask if I have been yelled at by a customer yet!?  Seriously!  It is a good day when people don’t call and immediately start yelling!  I don’t remember it ever being quite this bad in the past but maybe I just try to forget that people are the shits and like being mean.  Maybe I totally block it out and ignore it?  I don’t know what it is but people have become so incredibly rude that it makes serving the public miserable.  I am thankful that I don’t have to be in customer service at Target or retail store somewhere because that would be miserable!

Problem solving isn’t easy for some people and those who struggle with it are the ones who tend to yell and scream when someone doesn’t do things perfectly!!  That being said, there are exceptions.  It is a known fact that my husband doesn’t blow his cork easily. When someone pushes his buttons long enough he might raise his voice and call them out, but he isn’t mean!  I know which buttons to push if I want to deliberately see him jump, but anymore I don’t take pleasure in that like I might have when we were first together!!  Problem solving is not that hard when you become a listener.  Parts get ordered incorrectly, billings could be wrong, people make mistakes, and how you respond will determine how I will work it out with you!  Call me and be nice!!! I am nice to you!!  Call me and hurdle your anger at me and I am probably not going to budge easily!!  I have written about a company who has been incredibly difficult, acting much like an unhappy toddler and now my willingness to accommodate their every whim, like we had in the past, is gone.  There is no respect and no desire to make their work any easier.  The sad part is that I don’t think that they care one bit who they hurt and what bridges they burn….. Mutual respect as humans garners the same!

I don’t understand why this attitude is more pervasive than I can recall in the past?  I remember growing up in retail at the drug store.  We greeted you when you walked in, we asked to help you, we were genuinely glad you were there!  I feel that way when I walk into a couple of stores in our downtown, but certainly not all of them!  I try to greet people when they come in and let them know that we appreciate their business, not because I have to, but because it is the truth.  I listen to Pastor Rick Warren every morning on my phone.  He gives a 20 minute devotional that I listen to while I put my makeup on.  Lately he has been doing a series about Mercy.  He talks about how mercy is actually just doing what Jesus would have done, and I don’t mean the WWJD thing…I mean what it is really about.  That wisdom give you the ability to be forgiving of people who have wronged you, loving your neighbor, helping when you are needed, being there, showing up, sharing your gifts, and BEING NICE.  I am thinking that if people would just smile at a person this world could be so different.  It is hard to be mean to someone who smiles at you, just ask any grandma of a toddler!!  I think that the whole premise of making myself better means more about how I can live in the faith, not allowing myself to be the anger.  I spent a lot of years with anger boiling just below the surface while I was trying to understand where that anger was coming from.  When I finally got the help I needed to overcome adversity and found that God had never gone anywhere,  the inner peace came to stay.  I have even learned to react differently to people who have no peace or are simply rude.  That has definitely given me more inner peace, even in the hard days.   It has also made my dealings with businesses and vendors better!  I refuse to yell at people the way people have yelled at me!! I am turning the other cheek.  In my rebelliousness it might be my ass cheeks, but I am still a work in progress.

Peace.. Have a great Wednesday!

Until then….practice

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